IES  L.  HILL 


Hi  II  Pi  ill  II 

I  i;illlll:ill 

i    sip!  ii  i      iili    1!!HS 

SJHBii;}  »  H  *  i  1  !;;;!> ;  i  •  ;;  1  iHUiuiili-h  i 


GIFT 


THE 
WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

And  Other  Addresses 


TO  YOUNG  MEN  AND  WOMEN, 
BOYS  AND  GIRLS 

BY 

REV.  JAMES  L.  HILL,  D.  D. 


AUTHOR  OF 

FAVORITES  OF  HISTORY,  THE  CENTURY'S  CAPSTONE, 

MEMORY  COMFORTING  SORROW,  A  CROWNING 

ACHIEVEMENT,  THE  IMMORTAL  SEVEN,  THE 

SCHOLAR'S  LARGER  LIFE,  ETC. 


1919 

THE  STRATFORD  COMPANY,  Publishers 
BOSTON 


Copyright    1920 

The  STRATFORD  CO.,  Publishers 
Boston,  Mass. 


The  Alpine  Press,  Boston,   Mass.,   U.   3.  A. 


Contents 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     The  Worst  Boys  In  Town        ...  1 

And  Sarah  saw  the  son  of  Hagar  mock- 
ing. Gen.  21:  23. 

And  as  he  was  going  up  by  the  way,  there 
came  forth  little  children  out  of  the  city,  and 
mocked  him;  Go  up,  thou  bald-head;  go  up 
thou  bald-head.  II  Kings  2 :  23. 

II.     The  Clean  Sporting  Spirit      ...          14 

If  a  man  strive  for  masteries,  yet  is  he 
not  crowned  except  he  strive  lawfully. 
II  Tim.  2 :  5. 

III.  Having  A  Flag  and  Flying  It      .        .          21 

Thou  hast  given  a  banner  that  it  may  be 
displayed.  Ps.  60 :  4. 

IV.  A  Kindergarten  for  Colts      ...          29 

Go  ye  into  the  village.  At  your  entering 
ye  shall  find  a  colt.  Luke  19 :  30. 

V.     The  Morals  of  Money     ....          38 

He  will  prosper  us :  therefore —  Neh.  2 :  20. 

VI.     Team  Work 47 

Two  are  better  than  one  because  they  have 
a  good  reward  for  their  labor.  For  if  they 
fall,  one  will  lift  up  his  fellow:  but  woe  to 
him  that  is  alone  when  he  falleth:  for  he 
hath  not  another  to  help  him  up.  Eccl.  4 :  9, 
10. 

VII.    If  I  Were  A  Boy  Again       ...          59 

He  shall  return  to  the  days  of  his  youth. 
Job  33:  25. 

VIII.     The  Stick  Girls  of  Venice      ...          67 

Take  my  yoke.      Matt.    11:29. 


436193 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

IX.     Speaking  Well 77 

And  the  Lord  said,  I  know  that  he  can 
speak  well.  Ex.  4:  14. 

X.    Boy  Lost 89 

They  found  him  not.     Luke  2:  45. 

XI.     The  First  Who  Cheered  ....          97 

Immediately  received  strength.     Acts  3:  7. 

XII.     Fares,  Please 106 

So  he  paid  the  fare  thereof.     Jonah   1:3. 

XIII.  The  Ever  Present  Boy    ....        116 

There   is   a  lad  here.     John   6:9. 

XIV.  Little  Touches 127 

Say  now,  Shibboleth :  and  he  said  Sibboleth 
for  he   could  not  frame  to  pronounce   it  right. 
Judges    12 :  6. 

XV.     "Please  Slow  Down."      ....        136 

According  to  the  pace  of  the  children. 
Gen.  33  :  14.  Rev.  Version. 

XVI.    Paul  Jr 147 

And  when  Paul's  sister's  son  heard  of 
their  lying  in  wait,  he  went  and  entered  into 
the  castle  and  told  Paul.  Acts  23 :  16. 

XVII.     The   Sound  and  Robust  Have  No 

Monopoly 156 

The  Lame  take  the  Prey.     Isa.  23:  33. 

XVIII.     Becoming  A  Lady 166 

And  thou  saidst,  I  shall  be  a  lady.  Isa. 
47:  7. 

XIX.    An  Inventory  of  What  We  Have   .        .        179 

Tell  me,  what  hast  thou  in  the  house '! 
II  Kings  4:  2. 

XX.     A  Difference  In  Cradles         ...        192 

She  laid  him  in  a  manger.     Luke  2 :  7. 

XXI.     Why  People  Cannot       ....        197 

They  could  not  because  of  unbelief.  Heb. 
3:  19. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XXII. 


Little  Coats  for  Little  Men     . 

His  mother  made  him  a  little  coat  and 
brought  it  to  him.  I  Sam.  2 :  19. 

XXIII.  Providence  Opens  the  Gate    . 

A  little  Maid.     2  Kings  5:2. 

XXIV.  Ready,  Waiting  To  Be  Heroes 

Hast  thou  seen  all  this  great  multitude? 
I  will  deliver  it  into  thine  hand.  By  whom? 
By  the  young  men  of  the  princes  of  the  prov- 
inces. Then  he  said,  Who  shall  order  the 
battle?  And  he  answered,  Thou.  I  Kings 
20:  13,  14. 

XXV.     Something  About  Debts  and  Debtors 

I  am  debtor.     Rom.  1:  14. 

XXVI.     Gates  That  Open  Toward  the  East 

And  the  glory  of  the  Lord  came  into  the 
house  by  the  way  of  the  gate  whose  prospect 
is  toward  the  East.  Ezekiel  43 :  4. 

XXVII.     "Get  A  Specialty."         .... 

The  children  gather  wood,  and  the  fathers 
kindle  the  fire  and  the  women  knead  their 
dough  Jer.  7:  18. 


XXVIII.     Traveling  Incog 


Thou  shalt  bind  this  line  of  scarlet  thread 
in  the  window.      Joshua   2 :  18. 


XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 


That  Alarming  If  . 

If  I  had  not  come. 


John   15:22. 


Doing  the  Handsome  Thing    . 

Go  with  him  twain.     Matt.  5 :  41. 

Eagles  Adopt  Industrial  Education 

An  eagle  stirreth  up  her  nest,  fluttereth 
over  her  young,  spreadeth  abroad  her  wings, 
taketh  them,  beareth  them  on  her  wings. 
Deut.  32:  11,  12. 

Some  of  My  Mottoes      .... 

The  preacher  set  in  order  many  proverbs. 
Ecclesiastes  12 :  9. 


PAGE 
205 

213 
223 


233 
246 

256 

271 

277 

284 
292 

302 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XXXIII.     The  Story  of  A  Book  and  An  Island    . 

The  Isles  shall  wait  for  his  law.  Isa.    42 :  4. 

I  have  found  a  book  of  the  law.  II  Chron. 
24:  15. 

He  sent  his  word,  and  healed  them,  and 
delivered  them  from  their  destructions.  Ps. 
107:20. 


XXXIV. 


Modern  Methods  of  Christian  Nurture  . 

You  young  men,  because  ye  are  strong.     I 


John  2 :  14. 


XXXV.     Fine  Words 


In    the    church    I    had 
words.     I  Cor.   14:  19. 


rather    speak    five 


PAGE 

317 


329 


341 


THE   WORST   BOYS  IN   TOWN 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

And  Sarah  saw  the  son  of  Hagar  mocking.  Gen.  21 :  9 
And  as  he  was  going  up  by  the  way,  there  came  forth  little 
children  out  of  the  city,  and  mocked  him,  and  said 
unto  him,  Go  Up,  thou  bald-head;  go  up   thou  bald- 
head.    II  Kings  2:  23. 

These  are  the  worst  boys  in  town.  They  are  reg- 
ularly ordained  rowdies.  They  are,  as  you  see,  a 
turbulent,  insolent,  indecent,  shameless  set.  They  are 
all  together  become  abominable.  They  are  the  very 
image  of  what  we  do  not  want  the  boys  in  our  neigh- 
borhood to  become.  They  aimed  at  a  state  of  fright- 
fulness  and  with  their  deep  depravity  they  are  a  dan- 
gerous element  in  the  community.  Bushing  into  ways 
that  are  broad  that  lead  to  destruction,  they  are  swift 
witnesses  against  themselves,  for  the  godly  man 
against  whom  they  direct  their  Billingsgate,  has  done 
nothing  to  provoke  such  scurrilous  treatment.  The 
ragged  gamins  mark  him  as  a  lawful  victim  for  their 
jests  and  ribaldry.  Something  in  their  nature  antag- 
onizes against  the  good.  We  find  the  most  clubs  and 
stones  under  the  best  apple-trees.  Like  Absalom,  who 
raised  a  rebellion  against  his  own  indulgent,  kingly 
father,  they  are  preparing  themselves  for  their  awful 
end.  As  every  brick  of  the  wall  of  Babylon  was 

[1] 


THE 'WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

stamped  with  the  letter  N  standing  for  Nebuchad- 
nezzar so  every  one  of  these  guilty,  rude,  unhallowed 
youths  is  stamped  with  the  letter  T  which  stands  for 
trouble.  We  are  not  left  in  any  doubt  touching  the 
displeasure  of  Heaven  at  the  rakish  manners,  the 
odious,  ill-bred  conduct  of  these  young  scoffers  as  a 
frightful,  condign  punishment  fell  upon  forty-two  of 
them.  There  are  different  degrees  of  good  boys,  but 
bad  boys  who  have  become  Beelzebub's  tools,  busy 
with  his  work,  receive  it  seems  their  penalty  together. 

When  a  boy  is  ill  the  doctor  will  say,  Let  me  see 
your  tongue.  It  is  not  the  seat  of  the  disease,  but  the 
tongue  is  sensitive  and  for  purposes  of  taste  has  a  very 
delicate  covering,  and  so  while  the  difficulty  is  in  the 
system  it  will  be  shown  on  the  tongue.  When  the 
doctor  treats  him,  he  does  not  prescribe  for  his  tongue 
but  for  his  deeper  malady,  and  the  tongue  is  Boon 
clean. 

Something  is  the  matter  with  a  boy  that  makes 
him  so  foulmouthed. 

You  are  sick,  sick  all  over. 

We  can  tell  just  what  kind  of  a  boy  you  are  by  looking 
at  your  tongue.  The  thermometer  does  not  make  the 
temperature,  it  records  it.  A  bad  tongue  does  not  oc- 
casion the  evil,  it  only  reveals  conditions.  It  is  a 
symptom  and  shows  that  something  ought  to  be  done 
for  the  boy.  A  teacher  took  in  hand  one  of  the  worst 
boys  in  town,  who  was  corrupting  the  school,  by  using 
filthy  words,  and  employing  a  small  brush  with  soap 
and  water  she  washed  out  his  mouth,  and  made  him 

[2] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

rinse  it  thoroughly.  This  did  no  good.  His  trouble 
was  a  bad  heart.  As  Mr.  Shakespeare  says  "  Reform 
it  altogether. "  What  is  needed  is  a  complete  moral 
cleansing.  There  is  a  way  revealed  of  thoroughly  ren- 
ovating a  boy.  His  impure  language  is  like  a  sample 
hung  up  in  a  shop  window  to  tell  you  what  they  have 
to  sell  inside.  So  a  boy  using  wicked  words  has  more 
inside  of  him  just  like  that.  This  son  of  perdition 
certainly  needs  attention.  His  language  is  bad  be- 
cause he  is  bad.  The  rushes  never  grow  without  mire. 
If,  conspicuously,  there  is  one  who  should  be  banished 
from  our  land  for  our  country's  good  it  is  the  dis- 
respectful young  man.  It  is  sometimes  nearly  im- 
possible for  him  to  learn  deference  to  young  women 
simply  as  such.  It  generally  takes  an  untamed,  ill- 
mannered,  rude,  pert  street  gamin  a  good  while  to 
find  out  what  ails  him. 

Mistakes  appear  in  pairs.  These  sons  of  Belial, 
are  first  profane.  They  are  lower  than  the  North 
American  Indians  who,  it  is  said,  have  no  words  for 
cursing  one  another,  or  for  insulting  the  Great  Spirit. 
Profanity  is  believed  to  be  more  common  in  the  United 
States  than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  is 
certainly  more  prevalent  than  in  England.  A  second 
form  of  misbehavior  usually  follows. 

A  girl  is  a  sacred  thing. 

These  degenerates  do  not  know  it  and  hence  do 
not  respect  her  for  what  she  is.  A  man  was  smitten, 
we  find  in  the  Inspired  Volume,  because  he  rather 
too  familiarly  handled  the  sacred  ark  which  contained 

[3] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

the  books  of  the  law  and  Aaron's  rod  that  budded. 
These  unrestrained,  vicious  miscreants,  as  we  see  in 
the  text,  have  no  scruples  about  niching  from  any- 
one 's  good  name. 

How  strange  it  is  that  the  first  boy  born  into  the 
world  should  have  been  a  bad  one.  He  could  not  at- 
tribute it  to  example.  He  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Nod, 
which  is  the  Scriptural  way  of  saying  that  he  was  a 
vagabond.  The  first  city  that  ever  appeared  on  the 
round  earth  was  builded  by  the  worst  boy  ever.  He 
makes  us  think  of  Noah's  carpenters  who  constructed 
an  ark  for  other  folks  to  sail  in,  and  yet  were  drowned 
themselves.  No  peace  or  comfort  could  be  found  by 
Cain  in  his  city,  for  he  had  treasured  up  wrath  against 
himself  and  had  taken  great  pains  to  be  wretched. 
The  city  was  reared  probably  for  defense,  and  eur- 
rounded,  like  Jericho,  with  a  thorny  hedge  that 
neither  men  nor  cattle  conld  break  down.  His  mother 
named  him  Cain,  indicating  her  anticipation  that  he 
would  be  good  and  great  and  even  remarkable.  Being 
disappointed,  so  grievously,  in  a  boy,  that  worried  the 
life  out  of  her,  she  named  her  next  son  vanity,  proving 
that  she  expected  no  good  from  boys.  But  Abel 
proved  much  better  than  she  now  supposed  any  boy 
would  become,  as  Cain  had  been  much  worse.  Abel 
was  one  of  those  mild  lads  with  taking  ways,  while 
Cain  was  surly,  walking  pitward  with  his  eyes  open, 
for,  as  St.  John  says,  he  was  of  the  wicked  one. 

There  were  no  courts. 
Adam  would  not  know  what  to  do  with  him.    And 

[4] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

so  the  Deity  himself  cited  him  for  trial,  when  it 
is  probable  that  Cain  inquired,  Is  my  iniquity  too 
great  for  forgiveness  and  atonement?  Is  there 
no  fine,  no  suffering  that  can  be  accepted?  Is 
there  no  future  for  me  except  to  hide  myself  like 
a  wild  beast,  instead  of  living  like  a  human  being? 
In  literature,  the  imprint  worn,  his  life  long,  prob- 
ably on  his  brow,  it  is  assumed,  was  placed  there  to 
distinctly  identify  him  with  the  world 's  first  enormous 
crime.  This  misses  the  whole  lesson.  Here  we  find 
the  heart  of  our  theme.  On  account  of  his  atrocious 
character,  Cain  became  so  universally  disliked,  that 
a  mark  or  sign  had  to  be  mercifully  set  upon  his  fore- 
head, and  this  on  his  own  piteous  statement  of  the 
need  of  protection,  to  keep  folks  from  killing  him.  It 
is  a  real  misfortune  for  the  worst  boys  in  town,  sowing 
their  wild  oats,  that  business  men  whose  good  opinion 
it  would  be  well  for  them  to  gain,  look  upon  them 
with  aversion,  and  find  them  such  a  disgrace,  a  nui- 
sance, a  menace  that  their  whole  thought  is  one  of 
riddance.  A  boy  will  find  himself  at  a  great  disad- 
vantage if  he  starts  out  to  get  a  position  in  town 
where  he  is  met  with  an  all  around  suspicion  and 
revulsion. 

Friendship  is  a  great  aid  to  business. 
A  position  is  sometimes  created  to  give  employment  to 
a  worthy  person  that  has  everybody's  confidence  and 
good  wishes.  In  a  certain  sense  we  know  a  man  by 
his  friends.  Our  life  depends  chiefly  upon  the 
individuals  with  whom  we  live  familiarly.  Where 

[5] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

for  good  reasons,  people  are  down  on  a  boy,  and  will 
not  tolerate  him,  he,  having  lost  favor,  must  almost 
of  necessity,  slide  along  the  line  of  the  least  resistance 
into  the  slums. 

Ishmael  felt  that  he  had  every  man's  hand  against 
him.  There  was  also  against  him  the  determined  face 
of  one  woman,  "And  Sarah  saw  the  son  of  Hagar 
mocking."  This  is  the  way  we  feel  toward  you  in 
our  tent,  Aunt  Sarah.  He  was  a  splendid,  well-made 
little  animal,  pulsing  with  life,  the  darling  of  his 
doting  father's  heart,  but  an  independent,  unafraid, 
defiant  little  rascal. 

She  caught  him  mocking. 

He  was  vigorous,  saucy,  and  very  expressive  with  both 
his  hands  and  face.  His  mother  disliked  Sarah, 
and  he  expressed  it  with  signs  that  are  more  derisive 
than  words. 

When  bad  feeling  exists  between  neighbors  the 
fathers  and  mothers  may  attempt  to  conceal  it,  and  to 
be  very  guarded  in  all  their  utterances,  but  a  boy 
feels  no  such  hesitation.  He  is  out  and  out  with  it. 
You  wonder  how  the  neighbors  feel.  Look  to  the  chil- 
dren. They  will  let  you  know.  They  feel  no  intimi- 
dation. How  do  you  know  that  no  love  is  lost  between 
two  families?  The  boys  will  show  it,  and  emphasize 
their  expression  of  it  with  picturesque  gestures.  Boys 
at  play  make  themselves  look  like  Indians.  But  that 
is  a  frame-up  by  paint  and  feathers  to  give  themselves 
a  certain  appearance.  But  without  the  use  of  ingenuity 
Nature  attends  to  the  features  of  the  profligate,  the 

[6] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

intemperate,  and  abandoned.  When  one  of  the  worst 
boys  in  town  makes  faces  there  is  one  face  in  partic- 
ular that  he  makes,  and  that  is  his  own.  The  charac- 
ter he  makes  and  comes  to  wear  will  show  in  his  face 
which  is  like  the  dial  plate  of  a  clock  that  tells  the 
state  and  position  of  the  machinery  behind.  He  can 
give  himself  a  hangdog,  guilty  look,  or  he  can  come 
to  wear  an  honest,  intelligent,  unashamed  appearance 
that  speaks  for  itself. 

The  angel  said,  the  son  of  Hagar  would  be  a 
wildman.  He  became  the  father  of  the  Arabs.  The 
worst  boys  in  town  are  named  after  him, 

Street  Arabs. 

In  France  they  are  called  Bohemians.  You  know 
what  we  mean  when  we  say  of  a  young  man,  He  is 
intelligent  enough,  but  is  inclined  to  be  wild.  The 
Arabs  are  courteous,  polite  and  hospitable  to  a  pro- 
verb, but  their  character  is  founded  upon  that  of 
Ishmael.  He  is  impatient  of  any  curb.  He  is  like 
a  kite  that  feels  that  the  string  holds  it  down.  He 
antagonizes  restraint.  He  breaks  the  string  that  holds 
the  kite.  It  rocks  and  flops  and  falls  flat.  The  string, 
that  held  it,  helped  it  to  mount  to  the  skies,  and  was 
exactly  what  it  needed.  The  value  of  the  horse  con- 
sists simply  in  the  fact  of  your  being  able  to  put  a 
bridle  on  him.  Soldiering  is  a  school  in  which  a 
youngster  not  only  gets  on  the  harness  for  the  work 
of  life,  but  also  learns  deference  to  someone  appointed 
to  command.  This,  often,  does  for  boys,  more  than 
could  ever  have  been  done  for  them,  in  their  home 

[7] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

town.  This  is  a  new  lesson  to  young  America,  whose 
spirit  is  recognized  early  in  life.  A  canvasser  called 
and  asked  if  the  master  of  the  house  was  at  home. 
The  child's  father  spoke  up  promptly  and  said,  "He 
is,  but  he  is  sleeping  just  at  present."  At  Andover, 
attendants  upon  the  South  Church  used  to  line  up 
along  the  front  walk  with  uncovered  heads  as  Parson 
French  passed  into  church.  There  is  now  a  reaction 
from  reverence,  which  Shakespeare  calls,  That  angel 
of  the  world.  In  the  catechism  we  are  taught  to  order 
ourselves  lowly  toward  all  our  betters. 

"Betters!  Betters!" 
Young  America  has  not  known  of  any  betters. 

"I  was  born  in  an  unlucky  time/'  said  a  lady. 
"When  I  was  young,  I  was  obliged  to  respect  and 
obey  my  parents,  and  now  I  am  obliged  to  respect 
and  obey  my  children. "  Their  malady  is  acute 
Americanitis.  It  is  as  hard  to  get  this  infection  out 
of  a  boy's  heart  as  it  is  to  get  a  fox  out  of  his  hole. 
You  may  dig  and  dig,  but  as  fast  as  you  are  digging 
away  at  one  end  of  the  burrow  he  is  digging  away  at 
the  other.  In  a  parlor  of  a  hotel  a  child  became  BO 
ungovernable  that  a  guest  sought  to  quiet  him  and 
the  boy  struck  an  attitude  and  began  to  mock.  The 
mother  said,  "How  smart."  The  guests  said,  "How 
saucy."  She  would  rather  have  her  boy  seem  smart 
than  to  be  commended  as  good.  A  man  feels  no  in- 
sult if  the  statement  is  made,  "You  are  no  saint," 
while  it  would  breed  disturbance  to  say,  "You  are  no 
gentleman." 

[8] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

Fifty-one  policemen,  assigned  to  the  Chicago 
juvenile  court,  received  their  instructions,  from  Judge 
Victor  P.  Arnold,  to  "pick  out  the  worst  boy  in  each 
neighborhood,  and  hold  him  responsible  for  the  rest 
of  the  bunch. "  "  The  worst  boy  is  usually  the  leader, ' ' 
Judge  Arnold  said.  "The  other  boys  admire  his 
courage  and  will  follow  him,  so  we  must  get  him  to 
turn  his  energies  to  upholding  the  law."  Judge 
Arnold  recognized  just  what  we  find  in  the  text,  which 
for  the  lack  of  name  we  call 

"The  gang." 

Calamities  thus  come  in  groups.  Of  all  the  wiles  of 
Satan  this  wears  the  crown.  It  is  the  working  of  this 
spirit  that  gives  us  Sodom.  The  boy  is  spoiled,  by  too 
much  friendship.  He  has  the  defects  of  his  qualities, 
like  the  spots  on  the  sun.  His  friendly  nature,  one  of 
the  finest  of  his  traits,  is  his  undoing.  The  best  thing 
perverted  becomes  the  worst.  Once,  when  like  the 
worst  boys  in  town,  Bishop  Haven  was  mocking,  he 
was  caught  with  the  goods.  As  he  was  playing  with 
a  party  of  his  comrades  old  "Aunty"  Knight,  the  col- 
ored washerwoman  of  the  village  went  by.  Catching  a 
glimpse  of  her  he  cried  out,  "Hullo,  boys,  guess  it's 
going  to  rain.  Black  cloud  has  just  gone  along." 
The  old  woman  looked  at  him  kindly  and  said,  "Why 
Gilbert,  I  didn't  think  that  of  you."  Nothing  can 
take  the  place  of  native,  instinctive  tact.  Do  not  use 
a  sledgehammer  to  drive  a  tack.  This  mild  reproof, 
implying  also  a  compliment  to  his  good-nature,  sunk 
deeply  into  the  boy's  heart,  and  he  at  once  replied, 

[9] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

' '  You  never  shall  hear  it  from  me  again. ' '  Afterwards 
he  called  on  the  old  woman  and  made  due  apology  for 
his  rudeness.  "That,"  said  he,  "was  my  conversion 
from  caste."  "My  rogue  always  becomes,"  said  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  "in  spite  of  me,  my  hero.  A  good 
authentic  biography  states  that  Judge  Hoar  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  his  two  brothers,  the  senator,  and  an- 
other, used  to  be  the  three  worst  rascals  in  Concord. ' ' 
According  to  Bollin,  the  historian,  Alexander  the 
Great,  having  obtained 

The  gold  casket 

in  which  Darius  had  kept  his  rare  perfume,  used  that 
aromatic  casket  for  the  favorite  volume  he  was  read- 
ing. Into  the  "edition  of  the  casket"  many  young, 
growing  scholars,  as  an  expression  of  admiration  and 
obligation,  would  place  Todd's  Student's  Manual,  a 
priceless  book  whose  value  yet  "shall  be  made  manifest 
for  the  day  shall  declare  it. ' '  When  his  father  was  fa- 
tally ill,  as  related  in  a  remarkable  biography  of 
him,*  the  suffering,  dying  man  said  to  his  little 
son,  aged  six,  "Take  that  paper  on  the  stand  and 
run  down  to  Mr.  Carter's,  the  apothecary,  and  get 
the  medicine  prepared."  It  was  a  half  a  mile  away. 
The  store  was  shut,  it  being  Sunday,  which  meant  a 
further  jaunt  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  the  boy, 
being  indisposed  toward  it,  turned  short  about,  con- 
triving what  statement  he  would  give  his  father  in 
place  of  the  medicine,  and  so  said  at  once,  "Mr.  Carter 
says  he  has  none."  His  father  placed  his  keen  eye 
upon  the  boy,  whose  head  hung  down  and  who  went 


*  Page    29. 

[10] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

out  and  cried.  This  was  his  last  utterance  to  his 
father.  A  little  later,  being  ushered  into  his  father's 
room,  the  doctors  were  all  about,  his  father  placed 
his  hand  on  his  head  to  give  him  the  parental  blessing 
and  said,  among  other  last  words,  "  Always  speak  the 
truth. " 

Boys  are  not  angels  nor  professors. 
Sometimes  they  get  started  wrong.  Truth-telling,  a 
virtue  taught  with  the  alphabet,  gets  sadly  misplaced. 
The  hope  is,  that  the  boy  will  come  back,  with  a  good 
recovery.  While  we  have  known  boys,  according  to 
some  plumb  lines,  to  get  out  of  true,  yet  such  is  the 
day  star  to  them  that  sit  in  darkness,  so  like  a  North 
Star  to  any  wanderer  is  a  mother's  memory,  such  is 
the  all-conquering  power  of  the  spirit,  and  such  are 
the  angel  forces  of  the  world,  that  not  one  who  was 
responsible,  that  we  have  ever  known  was  irredeem- 
ably bad.  Mr.  Earey,  who  won  both  fortune  and  re- 
nown by  giving  lessons  in  the  art  of  persuading  the 
minds  of  horses,  believes  it  possible  to  always  per- 
suade their  minds  to  good  conduct. 

In  our  community  the  wickedest  boy  was  a  living 
horror  and  was  pronounced  incorrigible.  His  spe- 
cialties were  the  most  appalling  blasphemy  and  ex- 
treme cruelty  to  his  horses.  Someone  asked  him  where 
he  learned  such  infamous  language.  He  said  it  was 
not  learned. 

It  was  a  gift. 

In  a  religious  awakening  he  found  a  new  heart.  Both 
his  nature  and  his  speech  were  changed.    He  had  all 

[11] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

the  old  time  force  and  aptness  of  expression,  but  every- 
thing was  different.  Probably  alive  today  and  likely 
to  read  these  words,  he  is  a  popular,  very  forcible 
preacher,  of  the  first  quality,  and  is  assigned  to  the 
best  appointments  in  the  Methodist  Church.  He  bears 
the  impress  of  resolution  and  decision,  and  a  holy  in- 
fluence is  bridling  the  strong  passions,  which  are  the 
impelling  forces  of  life.  His  former  turbulence  is  in 
subjection.  It  is  a  whirlwind  imprisoned,  which  dis- 
poses him  to  take  things  by  storm,  for  touching  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven  we  are  taught,  that  the  violent 
take  it  by  force.  From  the  Boy's  Brotherhood  Repub- 
lic in  Chicago,  Joe  Wilkins  and  Manford  Haskel  vis- 
ited ten  states  to  find  the  worst  boy  in  the  whole  coun- 
try, the  boy  100%  bad.  When  found,  he  is  to  be  in- 
vited to  come  to  Chicago,  transportation  paid,  and  live 
at  the  Boy's  Republic,  whose  citizens  are  bent  upon 
proving  to  fathers  and  mothers,  policemen  and 
judges,  that  the  difference  between  a  bad  boy  and  a 
good  boy  is  the  way  they  spend  their  surplus  energy. 
In  nurseries  they  have,  with  shrubs  and  trees,  what 
they  call  their  wild  stock.  It  is  vigorous  and  thrifty, 
having  great  stores  of  vitality.  It  is  remarkable  only 
for  its  robust,  luxurious  growth.  They  use  this  wild 
stock  to  graft  upon.  In  trimming  a  rose  bush  we  once 
cut  it  in  so  close  that  we  got  below  the  graft.  Then  we 
had  to  retire  it  into  the  shade  that  it  might  hide  its 
diminished  head.  The  wild  stock  was  back  again,  at 
the  bottom  of  the  scale  with  its  inferior,  low  lifed  ex- 
hibit. It  is  unfit  for  a  garden  until  it  is  grafted. 

[12] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

1  'I  have  just  purchased  a  new  painting,"  said 
a  friend  to  Paul  Morphy,  the  world's  champion.  It 
is  entitled 

"The  Chess  Player." 

It  represents  a  young  man  on  one  side  of  the  board 
and  Satan  on  the  other,  and  according  to  the  repre- 
sentation and  intention  of  the  painter,  the  young  man 
was  hopelessly  checkmated.  By  the  references  to  this 
painting,  in  literature,  it  is  assumed,  he  is  beaten  for 
good  and  all.  But  no,  there  is  ground  for  hope.  De- 
spair, however,  is  written  on  the  young  man's  face, 
while  his  Satanic  majesty  laughs  in  glee.  Morphy 
studied  the  picture  a  few  moments,  then  called  for  a 
chess  board  and  when  he  had  arranged  the  men  as 
given  in  the  picture  he  remarked,  "I  will  take  the 
young  man 's  place  and  set  him  free.  Often  the  young 
man  finds  himself  checkmated  in  life's  game  and  his 
face  shows  distress.  But  as  it  is  written  There  shall 
come  out  of  Sion,  a  Deliverer. 


[13] 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  CLEAN  SPORTING  SPIRIT 

If  a  man  strive  for  masteries,  yet  he  is  not  crowned  except 
he  strive  lawfully.     2  Tim.  2:5. 

In  the  new  Delaware  and  Hudson  Station  at 
Cooperstown,  New  York  hangs  an  oil  painting  with 
an  inscription  which  states  that  there  the  first  base- 
ball diamond  was  laid  out.  This  fact  was  verified  by 
a  commission  of  two  United  States  Senators,  and  of 
other  high  officials  who  investigated  all  the  facts  and 
united  in  this  decision.  There  Major-General  Abner 
Doubleday,  who  was  then  twenty,  blocked  out  the 
scheme,  and  with  a  crooked  stick  marked  off  the 
grounds  and  placed  the  bases  and  players  virtually 
as  they  continue  to  this  day.  Taking  the  early  trail 
to  Alaska,  following  the  sun,  and  keeping  company 
with  the  hours,  the  national  game  reached  Japan  and 
China,  and  has  been  formally  adopted  by  them.  It 
has  proved  just  the  thing  for  Australia,  also  a  favor- 
able diversion,  during  the  world  war,  for  the  soldiers 
Somewhere  in  France.  Twelve  thousand  men  earn  their 
living  by  it  in  this  country.  There  are  no  words  to 
tell  its  story  as  a  civilizer.  A  superintendent  of 
schools  in  the  Philippines  has  said  that  it  has  done 
more  to  elevate  and  fashion  the  natives  than  the  com- 

[14] 


THE   CLEAN   SPORTING  SPIRIT 

bined  offices  of  the  army  and  navy,  commerce,  and  the 
schools.  In  a  tribe  of  Indians,  or  among  the  South 
African  savages  there  is  no  assignment  of  parts  or 
distribution  of  activities.  Every  man  is  a  hunter 
and  fighter,  like  any  other  creature.  No  one  has  a 
distinctive  fitness  or  gift  peculiar  to  himself,  or  a 
form  of  work  which  others  cannot  perform  as  well. 
Hence,  savage  society  does  not  cohere,  nor  co-operate, 
nor  succeed.  In  the  national  game  many  an  islander, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  found  himself.  He  was  put 
into  a  situation  where  the  highest  factors  in  him  were 
in  full  play.  There  was  one  place  on  the  diamond 
adapted  to  him  personally.  Here  he  could  outshine 
others  and  give  them  points  almost  instinctive  to  him. 
In  other  positions  his  associates  could  outplay  him. 
He  learns  to  take  this  fact  with  good  grace.  The  first 
thing  to  be  eliminated,  as  his  civilization  proceeds  was 
the  old-time  tendency  to  retaliate.  The  savage  has  a 
mean,  lurking  disposition  to  get  even  with  any  oppo- 
nent. Vindictiveness  is  discountenanced  by  the  clean 
sporting  spirit.  Revenge  is  unworthy. 

Be  a  good  loser. 

Be  tolerant  of  your  victors  and  learn  how  to  do 
it.  Engage  in  more  diligent  practice  and  ask  them 
to  come  again.  Thus  the  great  lessons  are  patience, 
the  value  of  training,  respect  for  the  rights  of  others, 
never  to  take  an  unjust  advantage  of  anybody,  and 
absolute  fairness.  It  seems  that  a  foreign  missionary 
now  uses  play  as  one  of  his  benign  agencies.  An 

[15] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

American  college  advertises  that  its  athletics  are  now 
on  a  high  plane  and  minister  to  intellectual  and  spir- 
itual, as  well  as  to  physical  development.  A  professor 
in  the  University  of  Chicago  has  stated  that  a  game  of 
baseball  is  better  for  the  youth  of  a  community  than 
lessons  in  morals  out  of  a  book.  One  expert  on  the 
necessity  of  play  claims  that  man  has  to  be  young  to 
be  civilized,  that  if  he  had  no  youth  and  no  play  he 
would  be  perpetually  a  savage.  Ten  years  or  more 
ago  George  Dunlap,  a  catcher  on  the  Boone  base-ball 
nine  of  the  Iowa  State  League,  became  a  Presbyterian 
Foreign  Missionary  to  Cebu  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  Philippines.  He  organized  a  base-ball  nine  and 
coached  it.  "Don't  swear  on  the  diamond,  you!" 
ran  an  expression  on  the  Cebu  field.  They  have 
stopped  swearing  and  fifty-four  classes  of  voluntary 
Bible  Study  were  organized,  among  the  brown  skinned 
Filipino  lads  in  four  months. 

It  is  obvious  to  those  who  reside  near  any  play- 
ground that  the  children  storm  and  scold,  and  even 
quarrel  a  good  deal  during  their  play,  but  it  is  best 
to  allow  them  to  settle  their  disputes  with  no  outside 
interference.  It  is  an  important  part  of  education. 
They  gradually  learn  to  subdue  their  passions  and  to 
be  careful  of  their  speech,  for  if  a  child  becomes  dis- 
agreeable or  violent  and  unreasonable,  the  others  re- 
fuse to  play  with  him,  and  the  game  proceeds  without 
him.  And  this  lesson  he  takes  home  with  him,  and 
the  force  of  it  ought  not  to  be  broken  by  the  parents, 

[16] 


THE   CLEAN   SPORTING  SPIRIT 

but  they  should  let  him  reflect  upon  it  as  he  sits  in  the 
house  and  walks  by  the  way,  and  when  he  lies  down, 
and  when  he  rises  up. 

It  is  his  education. 

Play  is  the  best  mixer,  at  the  best  time  of  life,  for  the 
descendants  of  the  people  of  four  continents  that  have 
come  to  us  from  over  the  seas.  It  is  the  chosen  avenue 
for  the  introduction  of  moral  and  social  virtues.  Our 
national  game  has  performed  its  greatest  office  in  re- 
placing the  earlier  rowdyism  and  destructiveness.  It 
has  created  a  new  atmosphere  in  the  nation.  Success 
in  the  trades  and  professions  carry  certain  great  re- 
wards. Once  we  shrank  from  offering  prizes  because 
of  heartburning  and  jealousy.  But  boyhood  is  now 
openly  taught  to  engage  in  good  natured  rivalry  and 
contest,  and  if  a  man  strive  for  masteries,  yet  is  he 
not  crowned  except  he  strive  lawfully.  By  that  is 
meant,  he  must  play  according  to  the  rules  of  the 
game.  Here  is  a  stubborn  youth.  Not  to  play  re- 
veals to  him  his  unfitness  for  this  world.  To  play 
operates  in  just  the  right  method  to  correct  his  dis- 
position. Such  an  individual  will  later  stand  up  in 
the  town  meeting  or  in  the  common  council  and  plead 
for  fair  play.  Indeed,  Where  did  he  learn  that  ex- 
pression ?  It  is  carried  from  the  playground  into  the 
political  forum,  and  he  carries  something  beside  the 
words,  the  principle,  the  practice.  A  fair  chance  for 
all, 

Equity  in  the  game  of  life, 
or  on  the  field  in  the  game  of  life,  or  on  the  field  of  life 

[17] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

are  taught.  In  his  sports  it  was  obvious  that  dishonesty 
leads  nowhere,  that  unless  a  game  is  played  fairly  it 
will  not  last.  It  will  not  for  a  fact  be  played  long. 
Each  one  must  play  according  to  the  rules  of  the  game 
simply  for  its  preservation.  For  any  continuance  of 
the  sport,  even  for  the  sake  of  interest  in  it,  there  must 
be  rules  and  respect  for  these  laws.  What  better  educa- 
tion is  there  at  a  time  when  we  were  exposed  to  the 
American  hazard  of  becoming  lawless  and  destructive  ? 
There  is  a  code,  it  is  a  code  of  honor.  No  outside  tri- 
bunal sets  up  the  penalties.  The  life  of  the  game  de- 
pends on  the  exact  maintenance  of  the  code.  As  the 
author  of  our  text  expresses  it,  every  man  who  strives 
in  the  game,  is  temperate  in  all  things,  or,  as  the  new 
version  has  it,  is  self -controlled  in  all  things.  It  would 
be  most  beneficial  to  this  country  if  our  government 
were  to  officially  give  support  to  the  rebirth  of  the 
athletic  spirit  that  once  dominated  Grecian  life  and 
activity.  A  young  athlete,  known  to  be  in  need  of 
this  moral  quality,  attributed  to  the  ideal  of  the  clean 
sporting  spirit,  his  ability  to  control  his  temper,  to 
exercise  judgment,  to  think  quickly  and  act  decisively. 
He  learned  the  meaning  of  discipline,  to  take 
orders,  and  carry  them  out  to  the  best  of  his  ability, 
without  asking  why.  Men  being  in  the  same  boat 
must  pull  together.  Some  one,  agreed  upon,  must 
act  as  "  stroke. "  This  is  a  great  training  for  the 
awkward  and  the  odd.  It  is  discipline  for  the  self- 
willed  and  opinionated,  to  stick  by  the  ship. 

It  has  been  worth  all  that  sports  have  cost  to 

[18] 


THE   CLEAN  SPORTING  SPIRIT 

have  purged  the  mind  of  youth,  of  its  oldtime 
habit  of  making  excuses.  Years  ago  when  a  boy 
did  not  meet  the  general  expectation  he  would  be- 
come quite 

Eloquent  in  excuses. 

What  he  lost  on  the  field  he  would  try  to  make  up  in 
diplomacy.  If  a  man  misses  a  ball  he  does  not  now  be- 
gin a  long  address,  having  fabricated  an  excuse.  Like 
the  man,  not  having  the  wedding  garment,  speechless- 
ness  is  in  order.  Defeated  players  are  silent.  Ex- 
planations are  of  no  account. 

Play  cannot  in  any  wise,  or  by  anyone,  be  made 
the  main  business  of  life,  else  he  simply  gives  an 
exhibition ;  and  like  Gideon 's  ten  thousand  who  knelt 
by  the  stream,  he  will  not  be  wanted.  He  who  drinks 
of  the  brook  by  the  way,  as  he  presses  on,  and  he  only 
will  lift  up  the  head.  It  is  the  true  idea  of  recrea- 
tion, a  sipping  of  the  brook  by  the  way,  and  its  effect 
is  not  better  expressed  than  as  a  lifting  up  of  the 
head.  The  clean  sporting  spirit  maintains  a  standard, 
that  is  now  adopted,  in  traveling  exhibitions.  Their 
owners  today  are  likeliest  to  have  been  country  boys. 
They  emphasize  sobriety.  It  is  useless,  for  a  dissipated 
person,  to  attempt  to  stand  in  public  relations.  In 
our  new  national  attitude  toward  temperance,  we  are 
more  deeply  indebted  than  many  know,  to  the  Medo- 
Persic  laws,  that  are  insisted  upon  by  the  ball  teams 
and  boating  crews,  that  have  also  taught  the  moral 
value  of  the  victorious  spirit.  They  have  taught 
candidates  for  honors,  no  matter  what  others  do,  they 

[19] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

must  practice  some  self-denial.  They  have  made  it 
evident  that  loafing  is  not  recreation.  We  can  name 
localities  and  classes  of  young  men  that  have  a  perish- 
ing need  of  learning  this  lesson. 

"That  is  the  best  country,"  Senator  Hoar  said, 
"where  the  boys  are  manly,  and  the  men  have  a  good 
deal  of  the  boy  in  them."  St.  Carlo  Borromeo  was 
asked,  what  he  would  do,  if  the  last  trumpet  should 
sound,  when  he  was  playing  at  billiards.  "Try  to 
make  a  good  hit, ' '  he  replied.  If  it  be  innocent  recrea- 
tion, do  it  as  well  as  possible  and  enjoy  it,  without 
shame  or  fear. 

Some  one  described  civilization  as  the  process 
of  womanizing  man.  We  do  not  so  apprehend  the 
Bible  spirit.  When  the  door  of  the  sepulchre  was 
opened  for  David,  and  his  grave  clothes  were  ready, 
when  at  his  desire  the  crown  had  already  been  placed 
upon  the  head  of  the  wisest  of  men,  the  sweet  singer 
of  Israel  exhorted  Solomon,  not  to  show  himself  a 
proverb  maker,  not  a  king,  not  a  law-giver,  not  a 
warrior,  not  a  statesman,  but  the  precept  is,  Show 
thyself  a  man,  displaying  the  fine  qualities  of  a  man, 
living  up  to  the  manly  standards  in  all  the  acts  of 
life.  So  Solomon  understood  him  and  he  sat  on  the 
throne  of  the  Lord,  and  prospered  and  exceeded,  all 
the  kings  of  the  earth,  for  riches,  and  for  wisdom. 
And  all  the  earth  sought  to  Solomon  to  hear  his  wis- 
dom which  God  had  put  in  his  heart. 


[20] 


CHAPTER  III 
HAVING  A  FLAG  AND  FLYING  IT 

Thou  hast  given  a  banner  that  it  may  be  displayed. 
Ps.  60 :  4. 

When  Commodore  Perry  entered  the  harbor  of 
Yeddo  in  Japan  he  placed  the  American  flag  upon 
the  capstan  of  the  ship,  gathered  his  sailors  about 
him  and  sang  the  Old  Hundredth  Psalm.  What  flag 
is  this  ?  It  is  the  glorious  ensign,  whose  broad  stripes 
and  bright  stars  were  seen,  by  the  dawn's  early  light 
on  Thursday  morning,  September  15,  1814,  so  gal- 
lantly streaming,  with  fourteen  stars  over  the  ram- 
parts of  Fort  McHenry.  For  every  present  star  in 
all  its  ample  folds  5,500  soldiers  of  the  Republic  have 
died;  for  each  star  6,000  brave  men  have  been 
wounded;  for  every  distinct  star  four  generals  have 
yielded  their  lives.  With  every  passing  day  150 
valorous  men  who  once  swung  into  line  under  its 
starry  spell  and  marched  away  to  the  music  of  the 
union  are  now,  at  the  river  of  death  " mustered  out" 
of  the  grand  army  and  ' '  mustered  in "  to  the  grander, 
greater  army  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven. 

What  flag  is  this?  It  is  the  symbol  of  2261 
battles  in  the  Civil  War,  which  it  entered  with  34 

[21] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

stars.  It  is  the  most  graceful,  beautiful  banner  in 
all  the  world.  It  represents  the  greatest  sacrifices, 
the  most  striking  providences  ever  exhibited  in  any 
country.  Carried  in  1777  by  Washington's  army, 
it  flung  its  matchless  beauty  to  the  breezes  when 
he  repulsed  Cornwallis  on  the  banks  of  the  Assumpsic, 
it  floated  in  the  smoke  and  roar  of  the  battle  of 
Brandywine,  fluttered  in  the  breeze  when  Burgoyne 
surrendered  at  Saratoga,  witnessed  the  unparalleled 
suffering  at  Valley  Forge,  the  capitulation  of  Corn- 
wallis at  Yorktown,  the  ebb  of  the  tide  of  rebellion 
at  Vicksburg,  the  beginning  of  the  end  at  Gettysburg, 
and  the  capitulation  at  Appomattox  where,  by  the 
terms  offered,  we  did  something  more  and  better  than 
conquer  our  enemies.  We  won  them. 

What  flag  is  this? 

It  is  a  standard  not  found,  on  exhibition,  in  any 
war  museum  of  the  old  world,  as  a  trophy  captured  in 
battle.  It  is  not  the  red  flag  of  anarchy,  nor  the  black 
flag  that  fights  to  a  death  and  which  gives  no  quarter, 
least  of  all  do  we  show  a  white  flag,  with  its  loss  of 
spirit,  absence  of  principle,  peace  at  any  terms,  sur- 
render. It  is  "Old  Glory, "  being  first  so  named  by  a 
man  from  Salem,  Capt.  William  Driver,  and  meeting 
with  such  popular  favor  that  the  name  has  followed 
the  flag  into  every  port  of  the  civilized  world.  *  *  Show 
the  flag,"  was  Dewey's  admonition  to  Capt.  C.  L. 
Hopper.  "Thou  hast  given  a  banner  to  them  that 
fear  thee  that  it  may  be  displayed  because  of  the 
truth," 

[22] 


HAVING  A  FLAG  AND  FLYING  IT 

<f[Jp  with  our  banner  bright, 
Sprinkled  with  starry  light, 
Spread  its  fair  emblem  from  mountain  and  shore." 

In  the  name  of  our  God,  we  have  set  up  our 
banner. 

There  are  many  persons  who  will  remember  the 
engagement  after  the  Civil  War  made  by  Sergeant 
Bates,  who  had  been  a  Union  soldier,  to  carry  the 
stars  and  stripes  through  all  the  States  that  had 
been  in  insurrection.  He  agreed  to  travel  on  foot, 
to  go  unarmed,  to  advance  only  by  day,  and  to  carry 
the  flag  aloft,  and  to  keep  it  flying.  His  triumphal 
progress  reached  its  finish  at  Washington  in  a  burst 
of  cheers.  He  had  started  at  Vicksburg,  and  passed 
over  many  battlefields,  met  many  citizens  who  had 
been  wildly  discordant,  but  still  was  met  outside  the 
cities  with  bands  of  music,  and  was  given  an  ovation. 
Without  any  exception  he  was  greeted  with  tokens 
of  respect,  where  it  had  been  predicted  that  he  would 
meet  frowns  and  insult,  and  possibly  bodily  injury. 
People  have  a  liking  for  the  unterrified.  They  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  loyalty,  although  often  they  would 
replace  the  object  of  it.  The  whole  nation  took 
pleasure  in  President  McKinley's  devotion  to  his 
invalid  wife.  While  she  was  admirable,  their  ad- 
miration was  directed  to  his  expression  of  gallantry, 
and  of  the  tender  passion.  That  is  the  way  we  like 
to  see  a  man  carry  himself.  Many  eyes  were  wet  with 
tears  at  the  sight  of  a  little  child  that  with  perfect 
ingenuousness,  and  unconsciousness,  being  arrayed 

[23] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

for  the  night,  dropped  on  her  knees  in  the  Pullman 
car  by  the  side  of  the  berth.  Strong  men  would  have 
given  up  their  lives,  if  God  had  needed  an  earthly 
agency,  to  defend  that  little  believer  in  prayer.  Her 
sincere  petition  would  be  answered  if  strong  men 
could  be  used  as  instruments  in  effecting  it. 

Just  as  this  sentence  was  being  written,  word 
has  come  that  at  an  evening  entertainment, 

The  Star  Spangled  Banner  being  sounded, 
all  present  arose,  except  one  man.  Before  sunrise  his 
windows  were  painted  yellow.  This  custom  of  rising, 
when  the  orchestra  swings  into  the  national  air,  devel- 
ops patriotic  feeling.  This  is  a  saving  grace.  In  case 
our  country  is  menaced,  pure  sentiment  is  the  biggest 
force  we  have.  It  will  be  heard  from  in  every  contest. 
The  man  who  sat,  did  not  know  how  mean  and  ugly 
he  was  until  he  was  discovered  to  himself  by  a  com- 
parison with  the  standard  feeling.  If,  however,  he 
had  belonged  to  another  nation  and  had  been  at  home 
in  it,  and  then  had  arisen  at  the  summons  of  a  national 
air,  he  would  have  been  a  good  brother,  to  a  real  Amer- 
ican. The  point  is,  Have  a  flag.  Do  not  go  along 
without  some  ideas,  convictions,  principles.  Stand 
for  them.  If  need  be,  die  for  them.  On  proper  occa- 
sion exalt  the  flag.  Let  it  break  out  upon  its  native 
air.  A  being  is  less  than  a  man  who  will  not,  on 
appropriate  occasions,  show  his  colors,  stand  and  be 
counted,  and  thus  respectfully  demonstrate  what  side 
he  is  on.  That  man  needs  forgivenness  for  one  of 
the  sins  of  omission,  who  omits  this  duty.  He  might 

[24] 


HAVING  A  FLAG  AND  FLYING  IT 

be  free  from  gross  sin,  and  be  guilty  of  the  sin  of 
not  being  positive.  We  have  never  gone  low  enough 
to  say,  America  for  Americans,  for  a  better  sentiment 
is,  seeing  the  world  is  wide,  Americans  for  America. 
Everyone  sitting  on  the  fence  ought  to  find  it  a 
barbed  wire  fence.  A  weak-kneed,  afraid-to-take- 
sides,  try-to-please  everybody,  opinionless  drifter 
brings  to  mind,  the  immigrant  who  wanted  to  be 
naturalized  as  a  citizen.  But  instead,  spoke  of  being 
neutralized.  Both  the  measles  and  small  pox  are 
dangerous  maladies  unless  they  come  out.  A  street 
car  conductor  is  said  to  have  resigned  his  position 
and  to  have  entered  a  profession  because,  as  he  said, 
he  was 

Tired  of  standing  up. 

Failure  to  confess  openly,  thus  quenching  the  spirit, 
has  this  result.  Other  suggestions  of  duty  will  not 
come  to  anyone  until  these  are  first  discharged.  Se- 
crecy, in  the  matter  of  discipleship,  is  damaging  to  the 
whole  character.  Few  things  are  so  injurious,  as  to 
have  settled  convictions  and  fail  to  act  openly  and  re- 
solutely on  these  convictions.  A  person  who  thinks  he 
has  faith  which  is  not  strong  enough  to  come  to  some 
form  of  expression  probably  very  much  overestimated 
what  he  has.  More  is  expected  of  a  man,  than  the  fact, 
that  he  is  a  Christian,  should  only  leak  out.  "  Before 
men,"  "before  men,"  said  the  Saviour.  "That  they 
may  see. ' '  It  must  have  a  baleful  influence  on  any  per- 
son, for  example,  to  be  married  and  not  to  acknowl- 
edge one's  relations  openly.  The  reflex  influence,  on 

[25] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

the  persons  themselves,  if  they  should  try  to  say  that 
it  is  no  one's  concern  but  their  own,  would  be  blight- 
ing. It  would  not  be  a  fact :  No  one  would  suffer  as 
much  as  themselves.  All  the  relations  of  life  are  dis- 
tinctly ennobled,  by  the  fact,  that  in  each  of  them 
there  are  some  noble,  open,  generous  souls  that  speak 
of  the  objects  of  their  affection  with  such  eloquent  ad- 
miration that  the  world  listens  and  approves,  and 
marks  up  those  relationships  a  little  in  the  general 
estimation.  There  is  an  inward  suicide,  more  awful 
than  the  destruction  of  the  animal  life;  an  inward 
ruin,  more  mournful  than  any  wrought  by  the  con- 
flagration of  cities,  or  the  desolation  of  cyclones.  Just 
before  a  soldier  is  shot  for  desertion,  or  other  high 
crimes,  a  non-commissioned  officer  cuts  off  all  his  mil- 
itary buttons.  With  some  high-born  natures,  this  is 
said  to  bring  on  a  deeper  eclipse  than  the  coming 
death.  To  stand  in  the  middle  of  a  hollow  square 
while  a  corporal  cuts  off  the  buttons,  one  by  one,  to 
utterly  detach  the  insignia  of  one's  own  country,  to 
cut  off  the  expression  of  one's  relations  to  his  native 
land,  to  detach  him,  from  what,  all  others  love  and 
serve,  to  thus  lose  all  with  no  chance  to  replace,  this, 
is  the  second  death. 

Turn  now  to  a  religious  meeting  where  testimony 
is  being  given  spontaneously,  promptly,  and  obviously 
from  the  heart.  Mr.  Philip  J.  Hasentaub,  of  Jackson- 
ville, Illinois,  rises  and  begins  to  move  both  fingers 
and  arms  gracefully  and  energetically,  and  to  gesticu- 
late freely.  He  is  a  deaf  mute.  His  heart  abounds 

[26] 


HAVING  A  FLAG  AND  FLYING  IT 

with  love  to  God,  and  he  does  not  want  to  be  denied, 
the  privilege  of  testimony. 

See  him  labor. 

Witness  that  earnestness  of  expression.  See  him  bravely 
encounter  the  disadvantages,  where  there  is  a  strong 
conviction  and  affection  and  impulse  moving  toward 
utterance.  It  is  a  great  inward  constraint.  He  de- 
sires to  bear  witness  to  some  of  his  experiences  of 
grace.  He  is  translating  the  operations  of  the  spirit, 
as  he  has  known  them,  in  a  human  life.  Although  he 
is  dumb,  a  living,  earnest,  religious  man  cannot  be 
dumb.  Silence  might  be  ruin.  Those  who  are  present 
will  not  live  long  enough  to  forget  the  sight  when 
Bible  verses  and  religious  sentiments  were  being 
given  and  a  deaf  and  dumb  man  stood  and  with  his 
manual,  chiefly  of  expression  and  gesture,  interpreted 
the  stanza  of  the  hymn  containing  the  words,  "E'en 
Though  It  Be  a  Cross  That  Raiseth  Me."  He  made 
a  quick  sign  of  a  cross  and  then  put  both  palms  under 
it  and  like  St.  Stephen,  looking  up  steadfastly  into 
heaven  began  to  lift  in  the  direction  he  was  looking. 
Everyone  was  struck  with  his  preternatural  appear- 
ance. Though  dumb,  he  had  eloquence.  Though 
speechless  he  had  more  than  sublime  pathos.  We 
have  heard  of  the  elevation  of  the  cross.  In  his  hands 
we  saw  it.  The  effect  was  inconceivable.  Webster  de- 
fines speech  as  consisting  in  action, 
God-like  action. 

Demosthenes  lays   great  stress  on   delivery,   but  if 
the  dumb  man  had  been  an  angel  of  light  he  could 

[27] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

hardly  have  made  his  rhetorical  figures  more  vivid  or 
effective. 

To  see  humanity  at  its  highest  we  turn  to  Captain 
John  W.  Philip,  who  commanded  the  Texas  in  the 
battle  of  Santiago,  July  3,  1898,  in  which  he  attained 
immortal  fame.  After  every  vessel  of  the  Spanish 
squadron  had  been  destroyed,  and  victory  had  perched 
on  the  American  banner,  after  requesting  the  boys  not 
to  cheer,  as  their  enemies  were  dying,  thus  showing 
sublimity  of  nature  that  merits  comparison  with  the 
chivalry  of  Sir  Philip  Sydney  and  the  magnanimity 
of  Grant  at  Appomattox,  he  summoned  his  officers  and 
crew  to  the  quarter-deck  and  reverently  said:  "I 
want  to  make  public  acknowledgment  here  that  I  be- 
lieve in  God  the  Father  Almighty.  I  want  all  you 
officers  and  men  to  lift  your  hats,  and  from  your 
hearts  offer  silent  thanks  to  the  Almighty."  There 
was  a  moment  of  absolute  silence,  all  hats  were  off. 
The  nation  applauds  the  act  of  reverence,  and  this 
open,  outspoken  recognition,  Thanks  be  to  God  who 
giveth  us  the  victory. 

The  tumult  and  the  shouting  dies — 
The  captains  and  the  kings  depart — 

Still  stands  thine  ancient  sacrifice, 
A  humble  and  a  contrite  heart. 


[28] 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  KINDERGARTEN  FOR  COLTS 

Go  ye  into  the  village.  At  your  entering  ye  shall  find 
a  colt.  Luke  19 :  30. 

On  visiting  our  second  largest  state,  equal  in  size 
to  England,  a  state  of  abiding  snow  and  continual 
summer,  a  state  with  a  Golden  Gate,  also  with  stu- 
pendous cataracts  and  prodigious  trees,  the  Italy  of 
America,  I  found  a  memorandum,  Be  sure  to  go  to 
Palo  Alto.  From  my  English  ancestry,  and  from 
habit  as  well  as  inheritance,  I  cannot  help  admiring 
the  intelligence,  beauty  and  superb  action  of  a  high- 
headed,  spirited  steed.  I  am  so  human,  as  to  have  be- 
come infatuated  with  the  friendship  of  a  choice 
courser,  such  as  we  find  among  the  best  horses  in  the 
light-harness  class.  A  noble  specimen  of  this  race  is 
not  only  docile,  but  affectionate,  and  capable  of  a  deep 
and  lasting  attachment.  He  has  a  real  craving  for 
human  notice.  He  dislikes  to  be  left  in  any  solitary 
position.  In  his  wild  state,  he  is  never  alone.  He 
will  turn  his  well-shaped  head,  full  of  character,  with 
clearing  intelligent  eye,  of  the  speaking  kind,  toward 
you  for  a  caress.  Such  a  warm  blooded  sensitive  horse 
will  always  exhibit,  in  ways  of  his  own  the  friendly  re- 
lationship that  exists  between  him,  and  his  owner. 

[29] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

The  late  Sultan  of  Turkey  wept  aloud  as  he  heard  of 
the  death  of  his  favorite  Arabian  Charger.  In  front, 
marched  a  regiment,  with  muffled  drums,  an  oration 
was  made  and  a  salute  fired,  at  the  burial.  This  is  an 
excess  of  feeling,  which,  in  a  very  much  more  moderate 
form,  some  other  persons  might  share. 

As  we  were  driving  from  the  railway  station  at 
Palo  Alto  in  California  the  driver  turned  and  in- 
quired, ''Do  you  wish  to  go  to  the  Kindergarten?" 

Kindergarten  indeed! 

I  was  not  a  school-teacher.  I  had  been,  when  we  taught 
the  infants  their  letters  from  Webster's  Spelling  Book 
and  used  exactly  the  same  blue-covered  text-book  with 
the  adults,  who  guided  by  a  crack  in  the  floor,  lined  up 
to  spell,  last  thing  each  day,  and  then  these  individu- 
als, beginning  at  the  head  of  the  class,  said,  One,  two, 
three,  four  down  the  long  line  to  identify  their  new 
positions  which  were  changed  each  day  by  diligent 
study  and  ambition  on  the  part  of  the  brighter  schol- 
ars to  get  above  the  dullards  on  misspelled  words.  This 
kindergarten  was  for  colts.  I  liked  it  clear  down  to  the 
ground.  These  little,  lithe,  lank,  knowing  creatures  all 
wore  halters.  Twice  only  did  Jesus  ride.  The  colt  in 
the  text,  whose  name  is  linked,  forever  with  that  name 
that  is  above  every  name,  was  tied  as  well  as  his  mother. 
The  colts  were  backed  and  handled  and  turned  by  their 
halters,  naturally,  easily  and  early  and  were  thus 
halter-broken  without  knowing  exactly  how  it  hap- 
pened. It  was  said  thus  that  the  oldest  horses  at  the 
Leland  Stanford  farm  never  had  heard  an  unkind  or 

[30] 


A  KINDERGARTEN  FOR  COLTS 

harsh  word.  For  swearing  at  them  a  man  would  be 
discharged.  There  is  nothing  to  swear  at  them  about. 
In  little  light  baby  harnesses  they  are  attached  to  the 
arms  of  a  sweep,  such  as  is  used  in  giving  horse-power 
to  a  mill  or  machine,  in  which  a  horse  travels  round 
and  round  in  moving  a  building,  and  as  the  sweep  is 
light  and  unattached  the  colts  are  so  hitched  that  they 
can  only  go  one  way,  without  chance  to  turn  they  run 
round  and  round,  and  are  broken  to  harness,  getting 
their  merry  exercises  before  they  know  that  they  are 
being  trained  for  the  road  at  an  age  that  would  have 
seemed  a  travesty  but  a  generation  ago.  As  in  the 
text,  the  colt  and  his  mother  are  treated  with  equal 
terms,  as  Matthew  distinctly  says  that  they  brought 
both  the  colt  and  his  mother  to  Jesus.  I  like  to  see 
both  generations  together  in  Christian  service.  We 
were  all  taken  up  with  the  bright  faced,  animated, 
gazelle-like  creatures,  with  their  large,  soft,  black, 
shining  eyes.  Stationary  with  surprise,  and  interest 
and  pleasure,  we  were  awakened  by  the  guide.  Don't 
you  want  to  go  to  the  miniature  track?  "To  what?" 

"To  the  miniature  track." 

Under  a  spreading  amphitheatre  we  found  a  little  care- 
fully-prepared circuit.  In  the  center  of  the  ring  stood 
the  master  of  these  little  trotters  with  a  whip,  of 
which  he  made  only  a  good  deal  of  display,  as  the 
little  thoroughbreds,  showed  their  inherited  gait. 

They  were  all  carefully  booted,  lest  from  awk- 
wardness while  so  young  and  growing  they  should  in- 
terfere, which  would  make  them  reluctant  to  go  again 

[31] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

at  top  speed.  They  were  taught  to  let  themselves 
right  out  and  never  to  break.  This  sharp  exercise, 
quickly  over  for  the  day,  after  a  burst  of  speed,  as  each 
colt  passed  out  at  the  gate,  he  was  handled  by  two 
strong  men,  who  rubbed  him  dry.  If  a  youngster  does 
not  show  quality  when  four  months  old,  he  is  disposed 
of  simply  as  a  commonplace  farmer's  colt.  He  has  no 
standing  on  the  Leland  Stanford  farm  in  the  costliest 
and  rarest  yard  of  colts  in  the  world.  Once  it  was 
the  custom  not  to  break  a  horse  until  he  was  three,  and 
sometimes  even  four  years  old.  But  now  their  train- 
ing begins  at  the  age  of  that  number  of  months,  and 
any  particular  value  in  one  of  these  little  bloods  is  ex- 
pected now  to  reveal  itself  to  a  practiced  eye  in  the 
initial  stages  of  his  career.  Breaking  a  horse  was 
once  a  great  sight,  and  a  neighborhood  event.  It 
sometimes,  too,  broke  his  spirit  so  that  he  lost  his  metal 
or  fettle.  It  is  plain,  too,  that  a  boy  reveals  his  dis- 
position, character,  and  inherited  qualities  much 
earlier  in  life  than  many  persons  have  been  ac- 
customed to  suppose.  The  earlier  a  boy's  training 
begins,  the  likelier  he  will  be  to  rise  out  of  a  low,  com- 
mon-place sort  of  life.  The  church  has  her  forms  of 
kindergarten,  and  every  week  that  is  passed  outside  of 
it  is  so  much  lost  time.  The  best  developments  are 
obtained  where  the  attendants  are  young.  If  this 
training  is  lacking  vvhen  one  is  young  and  susceptible, 
that  part  of  his  development  can  never  be  as  well  sup- 
plied later.  Training  must  come  at  the  time  for  train- 
ing. The  children  of  this  world  are  wiser  in  their 

[32] 


A  KINDERGARTEN  FOR  COLTS 

generation  than  the  children  of  light.  They  begin 
early  a  work  of  steady  formation,  whereas  once  in  the 
church  we  somewhat  overlooked  formation,  and  put 
our  religious  energies  into  reformation.  They  de- 
termine values  in  their  young  subjects  when  they  are 
in  the  kindergarten  stage,  and  in  that  period,  exactly, 
moral  and  spiritual  values  can  best  be  fixed. 

On  the  way  across  the  continent,  as  it  grew  tire- 
some as  the  night  came  on  to  try  to  read  by  the  even- 
ing light,  I  went  into  the  lounging  room  of  the  Pull- 
man sleeper,  and  was  attracted  by  a  young  man  in 
athletic  garb,  with  whom  I  fell  into  a  talk  about  a  race 
he  was  to  enter  at  Cleveland.  He  said  he  was  a  manu- 
facturer of  bicycles  and  sometimes  rode  one  for  an  ex- 
hibition of  speed.  At  a  certain  turn  of  the  conversa- 
tion he  took  the  ground  that  a  person  could  not  become 
an  expert  rider  who  drank  liquor. 

"Then  you  do  not  drink f" 

"No,  I  learned  to  resist  when  I  was  little."  "How 
was  that?"  "Well,  my  mother  had  eight  boys 
and  my  father  was  a  drunkard.  When  he  would  come 
home  intoxicated  my  mother  was  in  great  grief,  and 
used  to  look  at  him  and  then  her  spirit  would  brood 
over  us  boys.  I  can  see  her  now  as  she,  with  breaking 
heart,  looked  at  him,  and  then  wistfully  upon  us. 
Then  with  a  mother's  resolution  that  something  must 
be  done  my  mother  said,  'That  is  enough.  I'll  teach 
these  boys  to  say  No.'  So  just  as  soon  as  any  of  us  be- 
gan to  talk,  mother  would  pick  us  up  and  stand  us 
on  the  table  and  say,  'Now  what  is  mama's  boy  going 

[33] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

to  say  when  anybody  asks  him  to  drink  liquor?  Say 
No.'  Then  the  little  fellow  would  say  'No/  Then  she 
would  exclaim,  'Use  more  voice.  Shout  it  louder'  and 
the  boy  would  shout  it  louder.  Then  as  we  grew 
older,  when  she  would  hear  of  the  foolishness  and 
cruelty  and  woe  of  a  drunkard  she  would  tell  us  about 
it  and  say, 

'Now  get  up  on  the  table. 

What  are  you  going  to  say  when  you  are  asked  to 
drink  liquor, '  and  the  answer  would  come  with  vigor, 
'No.'  And  it  is  so  now.  If  a  man  even  talks  about 
liquor  I  find  that  my  mouth  begins  to  form  at  once  to 
say  'No,'  and  if  he  asks  me  to  drink  I  say  it  so  loud 
that  the  man,  who  tempted  me,  is  startled  and  con- 
fused." 

No 

is  one  of  the  shortest  words  and  yet  it  is  the  hardest  for 
some  natures  to  pronounce.  It  needs  to  be  practiced. 
The  resolution  to  utter  it  needs  to  be  mastered  far  in 
advance  of  its  use.  Many  a  man  knows  the  sorrow  that 
intemperance  brings  to  a  helpless  family.  It  isn't  in- 
formation, or  education,  or  experience,  or  even  con- 
science that  he  lacks.  What  he  thinks  is  well  enough ; 
sometimes,  he  will  advise  others,  to  let  drink  alone. 
The  man  lacks  stamina,  discipline,  the  moral  force  to 
say  "No."  William  James  points  out  the  fact  that  it 
involves  a  greater  degree  of  inner  work,  to  say  a  de- 
ciding No,  than  a  deciding  Yes.  When  you  say  "No" 
to  the  tempter,  say  it  with  a  firmness  and  accent  that 
will  make  him  feel  that  you  refuse  finally. 

[34] 


A  KINDERGARTEN  FOR  COLTS 

Dare  to  say  "No"  when  you're  tempted  to  drink, 
Pause  for  a  moment,  my  brave  boy,  and  think ; 
Think  of  the  homes  that,  now  shadowed  with  woe, 

Might  have  been  heaven,  had  the  answer  been  "No." 

I  believe  in  the  work  of  the  kindergarten.  I  knew 
of  a  boy  who  had  the  bad  habit  of  saying,  "I  don't 
care."  His  mother  would  say  to  him  kindly,  "I  fear 
my  little  boy  will  be  late  to  school,"  and  he  would  say, 
"I  don't  care."  "Why,  look,  my  little  boy  has  left 
his  hat  in  the  middle  of  the  floor."  "I  don't  care." 
Finally  she  drew  him  to  her  and  said :  ' '  Mamma  is 
grieved  that  her  little  son  has  formed  this  bad  habit 
of  saying  'I  don't  care,'  "  so  she  asked  him  to  write 
out  the  words  on  a  large  piece  of  paper,  "I  don't 
care."  Then  she  led  him  to  an  old  well  which  had 
fallen  into  disuse.  They  wrapped  a  stone  up  in  the 
paper,  and  the  mother  said :  "Now  let  us  drop  *I  don't 
care'  into  this  deep  well  and  then  go  away  and  leave 
it  there  forever. ' '  They  did  it.  The  boy  dropped  it. 
He  never  employed  it  again.  That  is  the  way  for  a 
boy  to  drop  a  sin.  Drop  it.  Leave  it.  Forsake  it. 

When  in  the  kindergarten  stage  of  life  some  little 
boys  learned  a  New  Testament  lesson  in  their  play. 
The  game  was  Fox  and  Geese.  A  great  circle  was 
trodden  in  a  field  of  snow. 

At  its  center  was  a  goal. 

The  fox  could  only  take  his  prey  when  on  the  cir- 
cumference, or  on  one  of  the  paths  leading  to  it. 
While  by  his  tracks  a  boy  was  marking  out  these  paths 
that  run  out  to  the  rim  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel  from 

[35] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

the  hub,  he  would  turn  his  eyes  and  look  over  his 
shoulder  while  advancing,  thus  glancing  backward  to 
see  what  kind  of  a  path  he  was  making.  Suppose  a 
chauffeur,  when  driving  his  automobile  should  keep 
straining  his  eyes  over  the  way  he  had  already  come. 
By  half  turning  around,  as  he  trod  out  his  path,  the 
boy  gave  a  twist  to  his  course  in  the  snow.  It  was 
found  better,  in  tracing  a  path,  to  begin  at  the  rim 
and  fix  the  eye  steadfastly  on  the  goal,  and  to  move 
unswervingly  toward  it.  "  Fellows,  quit  looking 
down  at  your  feet,"  shouted  a  young  drill  master  to 
his  new  recruits,  "eyes  to  the  front,  your  feet  will 
follow  your  eyes."  The  New  Testament  prescribes 
this  way,  Looking  unto  Jesus.  Those  who  omit,  look- 
ing unto  Jesus  have,  as  the  Bible  says,  made  crooked 
paths.  Remember  Lot's  wife.  The  angels  hastening 
her  laid  hold  upon  her  hand.  She  made  a  fatal  error, 
she  looked  back.  In  its  effect  on  character,  the  effect 
of  looking  back  is  much  the  same  today  as  it  was 
then.  Let  anyone,  on  whom  the  vision  has  shone  look 
backward,  instead  of  forward,  and  he  becomes  like 
Lot's  wife,  paralyzed  and  unmovable.  If  St.  Paul, 
having  seen  the  vision,  had  looked  back,  he  would 
have  been  good  for  nothing.  The  method  he  adopted 
alone  is  safe.  The  vision  appeared  and  immediately 
he  endeavored  to  go.  Who  puts  his  hand  to  the 
plough  and  looks  back  is  not  fit  for  the  kingdom  of 
God. 

Boys  in  the  kindergarten  stage  often  give  pointed 
lessons  to  one  another.    This  was  proved  in  the  case 

[36] 


A  KINDERGARTEN  FOR  COLTS 

of  the  blind  man  who,  with  a  staff  in  his  hand,  was 
feeling  his  way  along  the  street.  Having  lost  his 
count  of  his  steps,  he  became  confused.  The  boys 
playing  in  the  street,  knowing  his  destination,  began 
to  shout,  "Turn  to  the  right.  Not  so  much  to  the 
right.  More  to  the  left.  Left,  I  say."  Then  certain 
leaders  among  them  became  contentious.  "Do  be 
quiet.  Let  me  do  the  directing. ' '  The  bickering  con- 
tinued until,  with  a  quick,  unerring  instinct,  one  of 
the  boys  ran  to  the  gate  toward  which  the  man  was 
groping,  and  called,  "Come  right  to  me."  Come  is 
better  than  go.  An  invitation  is  more  welcome  than 
contradictory  advice.  It  is  the  Redeemer's  way. 
Come  unto  me.  I  am  the  door,  and  if,  by  me,  any 
man  enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved. 


137] 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  MORALS  OF  MONEY 

He  will  prosper  us :  therefore —  Neb.  2 :  20. 
A  lady  teacher,  in  government  employ,  in  the 
Philippines,  while  on  her  vacation  in  this  country,  has 
said  that  the  great  need  of  the  natives  seems  to  be  a 
national  hero,  the  spirit  of  whose  deeds  might  inspire 
in  them  a  national  character,  which  would  make  self- 
government  effective.  The  moral  value  to  a  nation  of  a 
renown  such  as  Washington's  and  Lincoln's  and  Mc- 
Kinley's  is  beyond  all  computation.  In  his  dream 
Jacob  beheld  a  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth.  It  rested  on 
the  ground  and  thus  afforded  a  low  beginning.  George 
Peabody,  born  in  Danvers,  having  poverty  as  his  por- 
tion, placed  his  foot  upon  the  first  rung  of  this  ladder 
before  he  could  elevate  himself  to  the  second.  He  had 
about  him  a  peculiar  charm  of  manner,  a  fine  address, 
and  the  persistent  germ.  When  twelve  years  old  he  paid 
for  his  lodging  and  breakfast  at  a  country  tavern  by 
sawing  wood.  During  his  life  he  gave  away 
$8,000,000,  and  by  his  will  distributed  $4,000,000  more 
for  purposes  of  education  and  the  betterment  of  soci- 
ety. The  evidence,  that  our  civilization  smells  of 
paint,  lies  in  the  fact,  that  he  was  the  world's  first 
philanthropist.  While  his  entire  fortune  is  just  the 
income  of  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  for  six  months,  the 

[38] 


THE  MORALS   OF  MONEY 

outstanding  feature  of  Mr.  Peabody's  life  was  not 
in  what  he  gave,  but  in  what  he  taught.  His  contribu- 
tion to  the  world  makes  a  record,  at  the  point,  where 
the  poor  islanders  find  their  lack.  He  became  an  in- 
spiration to  others,  led  the  way,  and  set  the  step  for 
millionaires  yet  to  be.  The  list  of  those  that  hit  the 
trail,  which  he  made  suggestive,  is  too  long  to  cata- 
logue. "You  seem  to  have  the  faculty,  sir,"  said 
Washington  to  Putnam,  "of  infusing  your  own 
spirit."  Franklin  set  his  foot  on  the  lowest  rung  of 
this  ladder  set  upon  the  earth,  as  a  printer's  poor  ap- 
prentice. He  reached  the  other  rounds  as  philosopher, 
early  founder  of  libraries,  statesman,  author  of  Poor 
Eichard  's  sayings,  and  the  real  founder  of  a  conspicu- 
ous feature  of  New  England  life,  which  is  its  thrift. 
He  thus  became  the  originator  of  a  second  character- 
istic of  New  England,  which  is  a  determination  that 
the  children  in  the  family  shall  have  an  education. 
This  was  out  of  the  question,  except  as  the  where- 
withal came  from  the  people's  hard  earned  savings. 
By  his  incitements,  more  than  any  other  individual  he 
put  his  stamp  upon  the  people.  Johns  Hopkins,  be- 
coming a  grocer  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  set  his  foot  on 
the  first  round  of  this  ladder,  set  upon  the  earth  whose 
top  reached  to  Heaven  where  the  Lord  stood  above  it. 
He  declared  that  he  had  a  mission  from  God  to  in- 
crease his  store.  He  had  the  grand  purpose  to  gather 
many  millions  and  what  he  gathered  he  freely  be- 
stowed, four  millions  of  dollars  for  a  hospital,  three 
millions  for  a  great  university,  and  ultimately  two 

[39] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

millions  more  for  these  institutions  and  a  park.  This 
was  in  accord  with  the  magnificent  purpose  which  he 
planned  early  in  his  business  career.  Because  of  this 
he  takes  his  place  as  the  ideal  philanthropist. 

He  exalted  stewardship. 

He  accepted  it  as  his  mission  in  the  earth.  It  was 
never  absent  from  his  thoughts  and  plans.  A  gentle- 
man who  had  long  resided  in  Italy  has  declared  that 
no  Italian  workman,  looking  at  a  person  of  wealth 
and  power  rolling  by  in  his  carriage,  ever  dreams 
that  he  can,  by  any  possibility,  attain  such  a  posi- 
tion himself.  Unlike  the  Italians  and  unlike  the 
islanders,  we  have  not  only  our  national  heroes 
like  Washington  and  Lincoln,  our  orators,  like  Web- 
ster and  Choate,  our  inventors,  like  Cyrus  Field  and 
Edison,  our  merchants,  like  Stewart  and  Marshall 
Field,  but  we  have  examples  that  stand  close  to  the 
boys  in  every  profession  and  trade.  The  Pilgrims 
have  supplied  to  us  what  the  islanders  lack,  hav- 
ing been  to  us  our  primal  inspiration.  In  giving 
the  reasons  for  leaving  Leyden  for  the  "northern 
parts  of  Virginia,"  Governor  Bradford  puts,  in  the 
first  place, 

The  compulsion  of  the  dollar. 

Few  people  from  England  would  join  the  colony  in 
Holland  because  of  the  difficulties  in  making  a  living. 
They  supply  our  great  incentive  to  freedom  to 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience, 
but  they  wanted  the  freedom  of  faith  under  conditions, 
in  which  they  could  live,  and  attract  others  to  their 

[40] 


THE  MORALS   OF  MONEY 


number,  and  hold  them  when  once  they  had  cast  in 
their  lot  with  them.  The  Italian  and  the  Swede  come 
here  to  make  a  living.  Robinson  Crusoe  was  cast  upon 
an  island,  poor,  wet,  hungry,  homeless,  and  beaten  by 
the  sea.  He  became  a  man  of  establishment,  of 
retinue,  of  possessions,  and  that  blamelessly.  What 
was  wrong  in  his  bringing  up  goats  and  fowl,  and 
laying  up  grain,  and  in  building  a  better  house  ?  De- 
sire is  an  intense  working  power.  It  underlies  all  ef- 
fort and  activity.  If  nobody  wanted  anything,  what 
would  anybody  have?  A  person  does  not  become  re- 
ligious by  not  producing  anything.  A  better  religion 
is  to  produce  in  order  to  give. 

Acquire  to  bestow. 

It  is  God  who  gives  power  to  get  wealth,  and  if  men 
acquire  money  in  the  right  spirit,  the  means  where- 
with to  do  good  may  become  a  sacrament.  It  was  a 
close  approach  to  this  when  Queen  Louisa,  and  she  was 
as  beautiful  as  she  was  young,  religious,  and  wise,  en- 
gaged in  person  to  answer  the  letters  that  had  been 
addressed  through  the  post  office  to  the  Christ  child. 
A  father  and  mother,  having  been  very  unfortunate, 
told  their  little  ones  not  to  expect  any  Christmas  that 
year.  The  children,  believing  that  the  Christ-kind,  or 
Christ-child,  provides  the  tree,  sought  his  aid  in  their 
own  way.  In  high  spirits  they  were  on  Christmas 
Day,  to  the  greater  distress  of  the  poor  parents.  At 
last,  the  door-bell  rang,  and  a  servant  entered  with  a 
gay  tree,  and  parcels  addressed  to  each  of  the  family. 
The  boy  exclaimed:  "I  wrote  to  the  good  Christ-kind, 

[41] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

and  he  has  sent  them."  The  postmaster,  finding  the 
letter  thus  addressed,  had  sent  it  to  the  palace,  in- 
quiring what  should  be  done  with  it.  ' '  Queen  Louisa 
read  it,  and,  as  a  handmaid  of  the  Christ-kind,  she 
answered  his  little  children.  As  she  engaged  in 
Christmas  shopping,  a  citizen's  wife  recognized  her, 
courtesied,  and  withdrew  from  the  store.  We  are 
helped  to  visualize  the  Queen's  loveliness  by  recalling 
Richter's  painting  of  her  radiant,  angel  face,  as  seen 
in  the  much-copied  picture  of  her  as  she  is  descending 
the  lower  steps  of  the  stairs.  '  *  Stop,  dear  lady, ' '  said 
the  Queen  to  the  citizen's  wife,  "we  must  not  drive 
away  customers  from  the  store."  The  Queen  found 
that  the  woman  had  a  little  son  about  the  age  of  her 
own,  and  purchasing  some  toys  said, ' '  Take  these,  dear 
lady,  to  your  crown  prince,  in  the  name  of  mine." 
Although  Her  Majesty's  allowance  for  charity  was 
ample,  her  warm  heart  was  so  ready  to  respond  to  the 
trials  of  the  needy,  that  she  sometimes  overdrew  it. 
There  were  debts  from  the  former  reign,  so  Queen 
Louisa's  many  charities  seem  to  have  been  the  only 
extravagance  permitted.  The  court  treasurer  felt  it 
his  duty  to  tell  her  she  gave  too  much,  and  he  also 
mentioned  it  to  the  king ;  but  the  next  time  that  Louisa 
opened  her  money-drawer,  it  was  to  find  it  refilled. 
"Oh!"  she  said  to  the  king,  "some  invisible  being  has 
filled  my  drawer  again."  He  replied  affectionately, 
and  in  the  conversation  following  connected  two  favor- 
ite texts,  as  in  Luther's  version:  "The  blessing  of  God 
maketh  rich  without  trouble,"  and  "The  Lord  gives 

[42] 


THE  MORALS   OF  MONEY 

his  own  in  sleep, " — or  while  they  sleep.  With  great 
vividness  I  remember 

My  first  one-dollar  bill. 

It  seemed  very  beautiful  to  me.  No  other  en- 
gravings looked  like  those  that  embellished  its  comely 
face.  Being  in  constant  fear  lest  I  should  lose  it,  I 
kept  it  locked  up  in  an  old  hair-covered  trunk.  Sev- 
eral* times  a  day  I  used  to  get  away  upstairs  that  I 
might  look  at  it,  and  be  sure  that  it  was  there.  On  one 
or  two  memorable  occasions  I  carried  it  out  and 
showed  it  to  the  boys.  The  pocket-book  in  which  it- 
was  secluded — a  gift  from  my  grandfather,  who  kept 
store — was  of  new  leather  and  quite  redolent,  and  the 
smell  of  it  made  me  very  happy.  After  holding  my 
possession  in  reserve  for  some  time,  the  question  arose 
as  to  what  I  should  do  with  the  money.  My  father 
was  very  much  interested  in  building  a  church.  After 
the  larger  sums  were  all  subscribed,  a  telling  appeal 
was  made  for  little  gifts.  Each  child  was  asked  if  he 
could  not  contribute  enough  to  pay  for  a  brick.  I  be- 
gan to  be  in  pain.  As  quickly  as  a  robin,  when  danger 
threatens,  thinks  of  her  little  pets  in  the  nest,  so  did 
my  thoughts  instantly  fly  to  that  dollar  at  home  in  the 
trunk.  Should  I  give  it?  That  was  the  question. 
My  father  saw  that  I  was  troubled.  A  hard  fight  was 
going  on. 

Well,  I  gave  it. 

I  remember  perfectly  where  I  stood  in  the  room  when 
I  parted  with  it.  I  felt  the  loss  severely  for  several 
days,  but  as  often  as  I  was  present  when  the  meeting 

[43] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

house  was  talked  about,  I  felt  as  though  I  was  one  of 
the  chief  owners,  and  was  glad,  on  the  whole,  that 
the  generous  impulse  triumphed.  Presently  I  noticed 
that  I  was  picking  up  pennies,  on  the  whole,  rapidly, 
from  blacking  my  father's  boots  and  from  piling  up 
wood  in  the  shed.  Family  tradition  has  it  that  my 
father  allowed  himself  to  become  superlatively  inter- 
ested in  my  handling  of  that  dollar.  He  is  said  to 
have  declared  that  as  often  as  I  gave  it  away,  con- 
scientiously, he  would  devise  ways  by  which,  from  un- 
expected quarters,  it  would  again  make  its  appear- 
ance. If  I  had  been  quicker  to  discover  this  deter- 
mination on  his  part,  I  am  now  thinking  what  a  free 
hand  I  might  have  carried  in  the  matter  of  giving. 
Other  churches,  I  could  have  helped,  and,  if  need  be, 
repeatedly.  To  some  poor  families,  that  to  this  day 
I  remember,  I  might  have  given  a  portion  of  my 
treasure,  only,  in  a  few  months,  to  find  it  perfectly 
restored.  Doubtless  my  father  preferred  to  have  me 
give  the  money  and  have  the  experience  of  it  than 
to  bestow  it  with  his  own  hand. 

Now  I  am  coming  to  believe  that  during  a  life- 
time men  would  have  more  money  to  spend  if  they 
gave  more  money  away.  There  is  some  evidence  that 
God  continues  still  His  sovereignty  over  temporal  af- 
fairs. "God  dealeth  with  you  as  with  sons."  No  one 
doubts  but  that  there  are  business  chances  and  open- 
ings and  combinations  which  may  be  termed  provi- 
dential. If  these,  at  any  time,  begin  suddenly  to 
make  in  a  man's  favor,  they  will  affect  his  circum- 

[44] 


THE  MORALS   OF  MONEY 

stances  and  fortune  more  favorably  than  his  industry 
and  parsimoniousness  possibly  can.  This  fact  grows 
interesting  to  us  personally  when  it  is  shown  that, 
fortunately,  in  instances  easily  authenticated,  it  is 
susceptible  of  proof,  that  in  monetary  matters  there 
is  a  mysterious  process,  analagous  to  that  in  nature, 
which  tends  to  keep 

The  basin  of  a  bubbling  spring 
just  about  so  full,  despite  the  stream  that  is  running 
from  it.  Indeed,  it  can  be  shown  that  as  a  matter  of 
good  policy,  considered  simply  in  terms  of  the  pro- 
ducing power  of  the  spring,  it  is  not  well  to  keep,  be- 
yond a  given  point,  the  water  from  flowing  off.  I 
have  a  personal  knowledge  of  a  few  men,  the  amount 
of  whose  fortune  seems  to  have  been  set,  as  if  by 
divine  decree,  and  while  attempts  to  store  for  them- 
selves, beyond  the  limit  have  proved  unsuccessful,  as 
often  as  they  have  dropped  their  fortunes  down  from 
that  score  by  benevolence  a  mysterious  reinforcement 
has  set  in.  A  man  whose  friendship  I  enjoy  says  that 
he  has  been  made  to  recognize  this  principle  in  the 
conduct  of  his  affairs.  He  declares  that,  related  as 
he  is  to  the  water  supply,  he  can  as  well  as  not  turn 
a  faucet  and  give  * '  a  cup  of  cold  water  in  the  name  of 
a  disciple/'  get  some  incidental  pleasure  out  of  doing 
good,  and  still  find  that  the  water  pipes  fill  again,  and 
stand  ready  for  service. 

"From  that  day  it  seemed  as  if  everything  I  touched 
was  prospered, "  said  the  lamented  William  E. 
Dodge,  as  he  referred  to  the  fact  that  out  of  limited 

[45] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

means,  in  his  boyhood,  he  helped  Henry  Obookiah,  who 
came  to  this  country  from  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and 
who  was  placed  in  the  same  school  with  him  at  Corn- 
wall. And  so,  too,  as  I  chance  to  know,  that  the  late  E. 
Reddington  Mudge,  out  of  money  already  acquired, 
purposed  in  his  heart  to  rear  for  a  company  of  wor- 
shippers in  Lynn  the  walls  of  the  already  famous  St. 
Stephen's  Memorial  Church,  and  to  this  end,  de- 
posited two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  only 
to  be  constrained  to  testify  that  no  sooner  was  this 
void  in  his  fortune  made,  than  unexpected  and  un- 
usual sluice-ways  of 

Prosperity  opened  right  toward  him, 
so  that  before  the  builders  brought  forth  "the 
headstone  thereof,  with  shoutings,  crying  Grace,  grace, 
unto  it,"  every  dollar  had  been  replaced.  I  remem- 
ber, also,  to  have  read  that,  when  a  child,  Alexander 
the  Great,  "was  checked  by  his  governor,  Leonidas, 
for  being  over-profuse  in  spending  perfumes,  because, 
on  a  day  being  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  he  took  both 
his  hands  full  of  frankincense  and  cast  it  into  the  fire, 
but  afterwards,  being  a  man,  he  conquered  the  country 
of  Judea  (the  fountain  whence  such  spices  did  flow) 
and  sent  Leonidas  a  present  of  five  hundred  talents 
weight  of  frankincense  to  show  him  how  his  prodi- 
gality made  him  thrive  the  better  in  success,  and  to  ad- 
vise him  to  be  no  more  niggardly  in  divine  service." 
The  very  best  getting  is  in  giving.  The  surest  way 
"to  have  a  large  harvest  is  to  have  a  large  heart." 

[46] 


CHAPTER  VI 
TEAM  WORK 

Two  are  better  than  one  because  they  have  a  good  reward 
for  their  labor.  For  if  they  fall,  the  one  will  lift  up 
his  fellow:  but  woe  to  him  that  is  alone  when  he 
f alleth :  for  he  hath  not  another  to  help  him  up.  Ecel. 
4:9,  10. 

In  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  as  a  company  was 
intently  watching  a  closely  contested  game  of  base 
ball,  a  young  man  leaped  pretty  nearly  clear  of  every- 
thing and  ejaculated  something  that  he  was  too  much 
excited  to  articulate  distinctly.  His  cords  and  eyes 
were  strained  and  his  face  was  almost  painful,  in  its 
wild  expression.  He  seemed  disturbed  that  others 
did  not  share  in  his  agitation.  With  one  hand  he 
would  clinch  the  lapels  of  the  man  near  him,  and  with 
the  other  point  to  the  last  player  crying  with  quick, 
excited  breath,  as  soon  as  he  could  command  his  utter- 
ance with  a  good  deal  of  voice, — He  made  a  sacrifice ! 
He  made  a  sacrifice!  a 

Sacrifice! 

To  keep  the  girls  with  us  we  will  state  the  case 
in  a  general  way  and  say,  that  the  player  made  a  great 
demonstration  where  he  had  no  chance  of  gaining  a 
base,  thus  giving  opportunity  to  another  man  to  spring 
and  fly  in  an  unmeasurable  fraction  of  time,  from  the 

[47] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

third  base,  and  reach  home.  A  player  took  defeat, 
a  lower  rating,  a  form  of  disgrace,  in  order  that  his 
brother  might  score.  Foot-ball,  basket-ball,  polo,  and 
most  other  sports,  particularly  our  own  national  game, 
are  all  played  with  the  goal  as  the  end  in  view.  Word 
was  passed  along, — 

Don't  die  on  third. 

The  score  was  a  tie.  Two  men  were  out.  A  man  died 
on  second  that  another  might  live.  One  man  merged 
his  interests  and  reputation  and  ambition  in  the  good 
of  the  whole,  in  the  success  of  the  team,  in  the  great 
victory.  Self-abnegation  was  his  part.  He  made 
himself  of  no  reputation,  did  not  count  his  life  dear 
to  himself  that  another  might  be  crowned.  That  is 
team  work.  Others  depend  on  us  for  success.  What 
they  gain  is  our  contribution.  One  soweth  and  an- 
other reapeth  and  others  enter  into  their  labor.  That 
brilliant  score  telegraphed  to  remotest  cities  was  an- 
other man's  achievement.  Hats  off  to  the  man  who 
gains  the  home  base!  Take  the  roll  of  a  book  and 
write  therein  the  name  of  him  who  made  the  score,  but 
secret  things  will  be  revealed.  After  this  the  judg- 
ment. He  that  abased  himself  shall  be  exalted. 

A  baseball  player  in  the  Boston  nine  was  expelled 
not  long  ago  for  indifference  to  the  game.  He  must 
not  have  an  ambition  only  for  personal  success  regard- 
less of  what  befalls  others.  When  he  takes  a  side  he 
must  not  say,  "I,  mine,  me,"  but  "Ours."  Winning 
ball  can  be  played  in  no  other  way.  A  crew  must 
stand  for  co-operation  and  self-sacrifice.  They  must 

[48] 


TEAM  WORK 

stick  together  like  brothers,  and  be  built  like  a  watch. 
An  employer  agreed  with  his  hired  man  upon  a  place 
where  they  both  would  leave  a  key  to  the  barn,  so 
that  they  could  both  find  it  and  use  it.  Presently  the 
proprietor  sought  for  it  in  vain.  "Oh,"  said  the  em- 
ployee, "I  afterward  thought  of  a  better  place  to  put 
it."  His  notions  as  an  individual  took  precedence 
over  a  common  understanding  and  a  spirit  of  coop- 
eration. There  is  a  vast  difference  between  force  that 
is  embodied  and  organized,  and  the  same  amount  of 
force  exactly,  that  is  lying  around  loose.  Force  needs 
to  be  handled  and  directed,  to  be  made  effective.  It 
will  not  do  for  one  musician  out  of  humble  modesty  to 
play  more  softly  than  his  part  requires,  nor  will  it  do 
for  another,  in  order  to  draw  vain  attention  to  him- 
self, to  blow  blasts  so  loud  as  to  mar  the  general  effect 
desired. 

Each  must  play  his  part, 

so  that  it  will  fit  into  perfect  harmony,  despite  his 
humility,  despite  his  pride,  thinking  not  of  himself, 
but  only  of  the  glorious  symphony  to  which  he  is 
chosen  to  contribute. 

On  a  familiar  baseball  field,  as  the  members  of  the 
nines  were  not  all  present,  for  the  sake  of  exercise  and 
practice,  a  free-for-all  game  of  one-two-three  was 
started.  On  putting  out  the  man  at  the  bat,  he  would 
be  relegated  to  the  remotest  point  in  the  left  field,  and 
from  there,  would  advance  again  by  stages,  as  men 
were  put  out,  to  the  bat  again.  As  the  game  was 
shaping  up,  a  boy,  eager  for  sport,  approached  the 

[49] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

bat,  but  was  observed  to  be  afflicted  with  a  degree  of 
lameness  that  was  clearly  prohibitive  and  yet  he  had 
a  keen  ambition  to  play.  Some  of  the  lads  present 
forgot  themselves  so  far  as  to  say  to  his  face,  "Oh, 
you  can't  play,  you  can't  run,  you're  lame."  Instantly 
a  manly  youth  having  a  good  mother  at  home  who 
would  be  proud  of  him  for  doing  it,  stepped  toward 
the  plate.  "Oh,  have  a  heart.  Don't  throw  his  lame- 
ness at  him.  This  is  not  the  first  time  he  has  heard  of 
that.  He  cannot  help  it.  It  was  no  fault  of  his.  Let 
him  go  to  the  bat,  I'll  run  for  him."  Instanter,  the 
ball  being  well  hit,  the  good  mother's  boy,  standing 
all  braced  and  alert,  and  strained  to  go,  bounded  like 
a  gazelle  for  the  first  base. 

It  happens  to  be  the  particular  form  of  team  work 
of  which  the  church  stands  in  perishing  need.  Here 
are  the  beautiful  flowers  in  church,  and  there  is  the 
hospital,  and  further  away  are  some  of  our  own  mem- 
bers, who  are  in  beds  of  sickness  or  in  easy  chairs  of 
wellness.  It  would  be  a  living  lesson  to  the  latter 
particularly  to  receive  flowers  from  the  church.  But 
I  cannot  go  clear  over  there,  and  then  there.  The 
lameness  is  in  the  upper  part  of  their  anatomy,  in  the 
second  story,  under  their  hat.  They  think  they  can't. 
Well,  then,  they  won't. 

I'll  run  for  you. 

There  is  an  unusual  person  present  who  ought  to  have 
a  particular  invitation  to  attend  our  social  meetings, 
but  I  cannot  be  running  around  on  such  errands.  I 
will  pencil  a  note  on  the  back  of  an  envelope  and  have 

[50] 


TEAM  WORK 

it  handed  in  to  be  read  from  the  pulpit  to  meet  such 
cases.  Here  is  the  church  spirit.  I  '11  run  for  you.  You 
look  at  your  feet  when  you  reach  home,  and  just  see 
the  extent  of  your  unused  resources.  Such  feet.  Yet 
unemployed.  Fall  you  must  under  the  precept,  To 
whom  much  is  given,  of  him  shall  much  be  required. 
The  fact  that  a  boy,  though  actually  lame,  came  to 
the  bat,  to  share  in  the  game,  indicates  a  fact  that 
mothers  sometimes  underestimate.  They  do  not 
realize  that  a  boy  lies  awake  nights ;  anyway  in  all  his 
waking  hours  he  ceases  not  to  scheme  to  get  upon  the 
team.  It  appeals  to  him  as  the  courtroom  does  to  a 
lawyer,  a  good  pulpit  to  a  minister,  and  a  brilliant 
match  to  a  society  belle.  The  gang  spirit  is  in  him. 
He  wants  to  be  one  of  the  boys.  The  team  has  its  ex- 
citements, its  sports,  its  close  contests,  its  victories, 
and  its  plaudits. 

Seeing  in  a  college  paper  that  in  a  football  game 
a  man  had  made  a  sacrifice,  a  letter  was  sent  to  him 
at  his  chosen  place  of  study,  enclosing  a  stamped  en- 
velope, this  is  spoken  of  only  because  it  is  unusual, 
asking  him  to  recite  in  brief  what  was  meant.  It  had 
reference  to  a  wedge-like  formation  of  men  advancing 
the  ball  and  making  their  way  across  the  field.  The 
student,  who  had  the  name  of  a  great  politician  which 
would  be  given,  except  for  a  desire  to  keep  together 
and  not  become  detached  by  our  political  differences, 
in  the  football  game  went  down  at  the  apex  of  the 
approaching  V,  or  to  be  more  classical,  the  Alex- 
andrian phalanx,  which  had  the  effect  to  bring  down 

[51] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

the  first  man  and  between  them  others,  and  so  on  until, 
in  the  melees  the  machine-like  movement  ended  in  a 
sort  of  terminal  moraine.  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come, 
and  no  further,  and  here  shalt  thy  proud  steps  be 
stayed.  A  witness  described  football  as  the  game 
where  they  carry  the  ball  and  kick  one  another.  He 
said  he  did  not  know  when  a  ball  was  kicked  properly, 
but  that  he  did  know  when  a  man  was  kicked  im- 
properly. In  athletics  the  great  thing  is  to  pull  to- 
gether. While  men  are  taught  that  they  should  watch 
the  ball  and  play  closer,  yet,  for  study,  it  is  greatly 
suggestive  to  find  also  that  a  defensive  play  never  won 
a  football  game.  The  glory  of  team  work  is  in  its  act- 
ive, aggressive  spirit  and  policy  and  actual  practice. 
What  a  loss  would  be  incurred  if  he  should  remove 
the  esprit  de  corps,  the  pleasure,  the  enthusiasms  that 
have  come  to  young  people  from  agreeable  organiza- 
tion. A  little  girl  came  up  to  her  teacher  and  said, 
with  child-like  open-heartedness, 

"1  want  to  belong  to  something." 
Even  the  teacher  did  not  understand  her,  nor  did 
she  understand  herself.  An  organization  has  addi- 
tional drawing  power  if  it  has  in  it  what  people 
sometimes  call,  tone.  It  is  suggestive  to  notice  how  soon 
a  new  generation  dislike  reference  to  themselves  as 
children.  They  are  too  little  to  be  big,  and  are  too  big 
to  be  little.  One  of  the  first  young  men  to  display  gal- 
lantry somewhere  in  France  was  once  in  church  classed 
as  a  child.  He  resented  it,  claiming  for  himself  that  he 
wore  youth's  shoes.  The  very  atmosphere  of  these  later 

[52] 


TEAM  WORK 

days  seems  to  stimulate  people  toward  alliance.  It  is 
an  infection  that  the  boys  catch  in  their  youthful,  im- 
mature devices  and  projects.  With  girls  it  is  the  bud- 
ding of  the  instinct  that  inclines  their  mothers  to  join 
Woman's  Clubs,  The  Woman's  Relief  Corps,  and  the 
various  charitable  and  other  organizations  which  are 
useful,  but  which,  at  the  same  time,  are  also  social. 
It  takes  a  little  girl,  sometimes,  to  say  right  out  what 
others  think.  Here  is  the  feeling  that  causes  the 
fathers  to  become  affiliated  with  other  gentlemen  of 
their  party,  profession,  or  kind.  The  best  thing  with 
which  to  start  social  feeling  is  a  team.  We  must  even 
cultivate  the  spirit  that  desires  to  belong  to  it.  The 
refrain  which  should  spring  spontaneously  to  the  lips, 
beating  in  every  heart,  should  be :  ' '  I  'm  glad  I  'm  in 
this  army."  Said  Henry  Clay,  "I  hear  the  sound  of 
the  coming  millions."  The  common  thought  would  be 
that  the  boy  makes  the  team,  but  it  is  just  as  true  that 
the  team  makes  him.  It  enforces  a  strict  discipline 
including,  in  some  cases  the  matter  of  diet.  In  some 
institutions  the  team  sits  at  a  separate  table  and  eats 
nourishing,  but  only  plain  food.  But  he  glories  in  it, 
seeing  he  is  on  the  team.  In  its  work  it  is  not  only  a 
force. 

It  is  also  a  field. 

The  best  thing  about  a  team  is  its  process  of  leveling 
up.  Those  in  a  group  who  have  the  highest  attain- 
ments intellectually,  socially,  or  spiritually,  engage 
unconsciously,  but  actually,  in  lifting  up  the  less  fa- 
vored. What  anyone  has  received  by  way  of  native  en- 

[53] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

dowment,  or  by  way  of  acquisition,  he  holds  in  trust 
for  all  others.  Somehow  those  who  walk  much  together 
do  get  one  another's  step.  What  exists  in  one  is  a 
blessing  to  others,  not  only  as  an  example  and  inspir- 
ation, but  as  an  actual  impartation.  The  best  men 
among  them,  those  governing  their  tempers,  those 
using  the  best  speech,  those  having  the  best  ideals, 
are  lifting  all  the  while  on  the  others.  If  a  coun- 
try boy  should  go  to  college  and  find  a  place  in  the 
suburbs  with  a  farmer,  to  work  his  board,  he  would 
not  gain  a  college  education.  He  needs  association 
with  those  who  themselves  need  association  with  him, 
for  fine  manners,  for  graces  of  utterance,  for  scope  in 
thinking.  During  these  formative  years  the  students 
pay  tuition  to  the  college  and  educate  one  another. 
The  queen  bee  does  not  rule  the  hive  as  is  commonly 
supposed.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  hive  that  governs. 
Some  of  us  belong  to  a  denomination — greatly  honored 
and  beloved,  in  which  we  are  much  more  successful  as 
individuals  than  we  are  as  a  collective  force.  There 
has  been  the  relative  decline  of  the  leader  in  religion, 
as  there  is  in  politics.  Nothing  is  so  plain  as  the  un- 
satisfactoriness  of  mere  personal  authority.  The 
growing  intelligence  and  power  of  the  people,  who 
form  their  own  opinions,  and  guide  their  own  actions 
are  both  in  less  need  of  leadership  and  more  impatient 
of  it.  It  is  a  great  gain  when  men,  by  being  welded 
together  in  team  work,  so  act  in  unison  that  long  after 
their  graduation,  they  play  the  part  of  big  brother  to 
the  new  graduates  that,  at  the  outset  of  their  careers, 

[54] 


TEAM   WORK 


are  struggling  to  their  feet.  To  this  unity  of  feeling 
and  action  our  divine  Saviour  points  as  the  plainest 
evidence  that  He  is  sent  by  the  Father. 

The  antiquated  mode  of  operation  is  shown  in  tne 
use  of  Esquimaux  dogs.  Each  one  is  tied  to  the  sledge 
by  a  separate  rope.  Each  dog  goes  chiefly  according 
to  his  own  inclination,  and  it  might  be  left  to  one  to 
try  to  pull  all  the  load.  Many  persons  have  been 
witnesses  to  their  back-biting,  and  to  their  noisy  dis- 
sensions. The  next  thing  is  more  difficult  of  state- 
ment than  any  that  has  been  named.  It  is  almost 
indefinable.  Anyone  who  has  served  a  church  will 
recognize  here  a  fact.  When  some  persons  are  first 
brought  into  relation  with  the  church,  they  are  socially 
awkward.  They  do  not  work  well  with  others. 

They  cannot  Wend. 

They  do  not  pull  even,  when  hitched  up.  The  first 
great  man  developed  in  this  country,  before  Pil- 
grim days,  the  hero  of  the  earliest  settlement, 
Captain  John  Smith,  illustrates  what  I  am  seeking  to 
say.  He  could  not  work  with  others.  He  must  be 
"It."  He  wanted  to  control  things  alone.  He  could 
not  share  responsibility  and  recognize  others  as  his 
peers.  When  he  begins,  everybody  else  must  be  sub- 
ordinated and  let  him  have  all  the  responsibility,  and 
all  the  glory  of  the  result.  If  temperance  people  could 
have  unity  of  action,  as  there  are  more,  who  are  at 
heart  against  the  saloon,  than  for  it,  we  could  sweep 
it  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  Why  cumbereth  it  the 
ground?  Only  for  lack  of  team  work.  That  only. 

[56] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

Stonewall  Jackson,  so  needful  and  so  helpful  to  the 
Confederate  cause,  was  shot  by  his  own  men.  Tem- 
perance people  are  guilty  of  this  fatal  error.  They 
are  against  the  saloon,  but  differ  about  candidates  for 
office,  about  drug  stores,  about  the  employment  of 
detectives  and  the  testimony  of  spotters,  and  the  use 
of  local,  or  state  police,  and  are  so  bitter  in  their  an- 
tagonisms, that  they  have  no  more  dealings  with  each 
other  than  the  Jews  had  with  the  Samaritans.  There 
is  no  more  agreement  than  among  the  clocks  in  a  farm- 
ing community. 

We  shoot  our  own  men. 

Up  in  the  north  country,  in  a  town  of  the  middle 
west,  the  school  boys  used  to  play  a  game,  when  the 
first  warm  day  of  winter  melted  the  snow  to  the  point 
where  it  packed  well.  One  boy  would  start  rolling  a 
small  snowball  until  it  grew  too  large  for  him.  A 
companion  would  help  him,  then  another  and  still 
another  until  the  ball  was  five  or  six  feet  in  diameter 
and  a  great  crowd  of  laughing  boys  was  exerting  every 
nerve  and  muscle.  The  sort  of  work  which  a  man  does 
as  a  member  of  a  group  is  a  great  deal  better  work  than 
the  work  he  will  do  working  alone.  Dr.  Richard  C. 
Cabot  says  that  only  the  poor  and  the  very  rich  get 
first  rate  medical  treatment  when  they  are  sick,  that 
his  best  work  is  done  in  the  morning  in  the  hospital 
for  nothing,  and  his  less  satisfactory  work  is  done  in 
the  afternoon  for  pay.  In  the  hospital  they  have  men 
skilled  in  the  different  branches  of  medicine,  and  each 
man  on  the  staff  does  only  the  work  in  which  he  shines. 

[56] 


TEAM  WORK 

Physicians  can  do  their  best  in  a  group,  and  the  bene- 
fits of  this  team  work,  the  poor  get  at  the  hospital,  and 
the  rich  obtain  by  hiring  a  group,  a  team,  and  no  liv- 
ing man  should  have  the  service  of  anything  else.  As 
Dr.  Cabot  shows,  nothing  less  than  team  work  meets 
the  need  in  any  matter  of  life  and  death.  On  this 
team  work,  a  doctor  limits  himself  to  that  part  of  med- 
icine that  he  knows,  and  so  does  not  have  to  do  any 
guess  work.  As  all  the  advantages  are  in  the  team 
work,  medicine  becomes  thus  a  public  service.  In  a 
crew  doctors  can  work  together  smoothly.  No  human 
being  today  is  wise  enough  to  understand,  much  less 
to  treat,  the  whole  human  body.  One  practitioner 
can  do  certain  things  well,  but  he  can't  do  the  rest.  It 
is  useless  for  him  to  try  to  cover  the  whole  ground. 
When  they  have  team  work  they  can  go  after  a  disease 
and  treat  it  aggressively  and  hunt  it  out,  instead  of 
having  the  disease  active  and  the  doctor  and  the 
patient  on  the  defensive,  when  it  is  said,  "I  cannot 
hope  to  cure  you.  The  best  I  can  do  is  to  make  you 
comfortable. ' ' 

No  one  man  alone  can  win. 

"Let  not  the  solitary  man,"  says  Goethe,  " think  that 
he  can  accomplish  anything."  No  man  can  be  great 
alone.  No  one  can  get  rich  alone.  No  man  can  be  a 
Christian  alone.  "When  bad  men  combine,"  said 
Burke,  ' '  good  men  must  associate. ' '  The  saloon  is  al- 
ways the  saloon.  It  is  always  united.  It  has  no  quar- 
rels. The  larger  dealer  stands  by  the  small  dealer. 
People  may  denounce  machine  politics  as  they  please, 

[57] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

but  organization  beats  disorganization  every  time. 
Guerilla  warfare  always  succumbs  to  concerted  action 
and  discipline.  In  the  great  battle  of  emperors  at 
Austerlitz,  Napoleon  won  solely  because  he  had,  by  or- 
ganization, welded  his  army  into  a  thunderbolt.  With 
outward  circumstances  wholly  averse,  the  colony  of 
Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  succeeded  by  making  a  common 
cause.  Thus  striving,  they  founded  a  nation. 


[58] 


CHAPTER  VII 
IF  I  WERE  A  BOY  AGAIN* 

When  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  a  boy,  lie  saw  a  dog 
coming  toward  him  and  thoughtlessly  threw  a  stone 
at  him.  It  broke  his  leg.  The  poor  creature  crawled 
up  to  him  and  licked  his  feet.  This  incident  gave  our 
great  author  the  bitterest  remorse.  He  never  forgot 
it.  Our  ancestors,  like  the  Pilgrims,  like  the  native 
Americans,  had  a  great  deal  of  the  hunter  in  them, 
and  we  have  inherited  this  trait  from  those  who  kept 
their  muskets  loaded  and  primed.  Ten  dollars,  years 
ago,  came  to  me  unexpectedly,  and  with  them  I  bought 
a  fine,  double-barreled,  handsomely-marked  shotgun. 
As  I  needed  practice  and  would  be  glad  to  become  a 
fair  marksman,  I  took  to  the  woods  and  began  shooting 
left  and  right  at  everything  in  sight.  I  feel  a  sting  of 
conscience  now  as  I  recall  my  action.  It  was  not 
right.  It  was  inhuman.  It  was  inexcusable.  I  am 
truly  sorry  for  it.  Taking  my  eyes,  and  ears,  and 
heart  with  me,  I  now  love  to  go  hunting  without  a  gun. 
If  I  were  a  boy  again  I  would  be  more  kind  to  dumb 
animals. 

Near  my  earlier  residence,  a  remarkable  intelli- 
gent Newfoundland  dog  came,  as  a  waif,  to  the  door 


*  He  shall  return  to  the  days  of  his  youth.      Job   33  :  25. 

[59] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

of  Mr.  Daniel  P.  "Weir  on  Margin  Street.  He  was  *o 
kindly  cared  for  that  he  made  Mr.  Weir's  house  his 
home,  by  adoption.  One  Wednesday  afternoon,  while 
skating  on  thin  ice,  the  man 's  son  Elmer  broke  in,  and 
was  drawn  under  by  a  powerful  current.  The  dog 
saw  the  accident  and  without  losing  any  time  in  ask- 
ing useless  questions,  or  scolding  the  boy,  or  calling 
out  to  people  to  do  their  duty,  he  ran  at  once  to 
Elmer's  assistance,  and,  by  jumping  on  the  ice,  Eover 
soon  had  a  large  space  broken  about  where  the  boy  lay, 
and  then,  diving  quickly,  brought  the  lad  to  the  sur- 
face and  carried  him  ashore.  Some  men,  who  were 
in  that  vicinity,  tried  to  reach  the  boy,  but  gave  him 
up  because  the  ice  about  him  was  so  thin  and  treacher- 
ous. But 

A  man  is  not  a  dog, 

and  but  for  the  dog  the  boy  must  have  drowned. 
Dogs  and  horses  have  much  more  intelligence  than  I 
once  supposed.  One  of  these  creatures,  that  has  been 
used  to  a  monopoly  of  attention  will  be  noticeably 
jealous,  indeed  he  will  seem  neglected  and  mortified 
if  another  receives  what  has  hitherto  been  paid  to 
him.  He  will  seem  absolutely  wounded  by  such  de- 
sertion. If  I  were  a  boy  again  I  would  be  more  kind 
to  dumb  animals. 

If  I  were  a  boy  again  I  should  try  to  be  more 
willing  to  admit  that  I  might  be  mistaken.  I  often 
hear  boys  now  violently  dispute  and  argue.  Some- 

[60] 


IF  I  WERE   A  BOY  AGAIN 

times  I  see  them  contradict  until  they  both  grow 
angry.  Now,  of  course,  it  is  plain  to  older  people  that 
both  of  those  boys  cannot  be  right  in  the  opposite  po- 
sitions which  they  have  taken,  and  one  of  them  is  sim- 
ply mistaken.  Now  a  boy  does  not  want  to  admit  that 
this  is  possible.  He  is  usually  very  positive  that  he  is 
right  and  that  all  others  are  wrong.  He  thinks  that 
he  knows  all  about  it.  When  some  older  person  is  in 
doubt  and  asks  an  honest  question,  a  boy  will  answer 
right  off  and  be  very  certain.  When  he  was  eight 
years  old,  Dr.  Washington  Gladden  tells  us  that  he 
was  travelling  from  central  Massachusetts  to  western 
New  Jersey  and  crossed  the  river  at  Albany. 
"Why,"  said  a  gentleman,  "that  is  the  Hudson 
river."  "Oh,  no,  sir!"  I  replied,  politely,  but  firmly, 
"You're  mistaken.  That  is  the  Connecticut  river." 
"The  gentleman  smiled  and  said  no  more.  I  was  not 
much  in  the  habit,  I  think,  of  contradicting  my  elders, 
he  goes  on  to  say;  but  in  this  matter  I  was  perfectly 
sure  that  I  was  right,  and  so  I  thought  it  my  duty  to 
correct  the  gentleman's  geography.  I  felt  rather 
sorry  for  him  that  he  should  be  so  ignorant.  One  day, 
after  I  had  reached  home,  I  was  looking  over  my  route 
on  the  map,  and  lo !  there  was  Albany  standing  on  the 
Hudson  River,  a  hundred  miles  from  the  Connecticut. 
Then  I  did  not  feel  half  so  sorry  for  the  gentleman's 
ignorance  as  I  did  for  my  own."  Sometimes  we  can 
feel  almost  a  pity  when  we  see  a  boy's  confusion  and 
embarrassment  and  mortification  when  it  is  discovered 

[61] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

to  him  that  he  is  all  wrong  in  a  matter  where  he 
stoutly  affirmed  that  he  was  surely  right.  And  so  let 
me  say  to  my  little  friends,  the  children,  "Let  us  al- 
ways be  ready  to  learn  from  others."  It  takes  a  long 
time  to  learn  some  things,  and  so  you  need  to  begin 
while  you  are  very  young.  If  I  were  you,  I  would  try 
to  be  willing  to  admit  that  I  might  be  mistaken. 

If  a  boy  will  see  himself  as  he  is,  in  his  studies  and 
in  work,  he  will  find  that  he  does  not,  and  indeed  can- 
not do  different  things  equally  well.  When  travelling 
a  boy  will  sometimes  get  easily  "turned  round"  and 
finds  difficulty  in  keeping  the  points  of  the  compass. 
He  cannot  tell  his  direction  as  a  homing  pigeon  can, 
but  of  course 

A  "boy  is  not  a  pigeon. 

Some  boys  are  not  naturally  good  penmen  and  give 
very  indifferent  promise  of  any  great  achievement  in 
this  art,  while  other  boys,  with  less  help,  write  legibly 
and,  in  the  use  of  a  pen,  are  free  and  ready  with  all 
the  flourishes.  When  a  person  has  a  good  deal,  or  on 
the  other  hand,  is  lacking,  in  the  matter  of  such  stock 
as  is  sold  on  the  market,  he  is  said  to  be  long  or  short 
touching  that  item.  Many  a  boy  is  short  on  drawing, 
and  the  truth  is  he  was  always  so.  He  was  born  so. 
Another  boy,  who  without  effort  can  entertain  those 
who  sit  near  him  in  school  with  drawings,  his  original 
real  creations,  and  with  his  caricatures  may  be  born 
short  on  spelling  or  grammar.  A  man  seldom  attains 
real  distinction  except  in  one  thing.  On  some  of  the 

[62] 


IF  I  WERE   A  BOY  AGAIN 

other  matters  in  which  others  become  conspicuous  he 
was  born  short.  If  a  person  is  born  so  he  must  face 
the  stern  fact.  His  distinction  will  come  on  the  things 
which  he  can  do  well  and  become  superior,  and  a  boy 
ought  to  know  where  his  superiority  lies  and  tax  it. 
But  in  that  particular  in  which  he  is  born  short  the 
deficiency  must  not  be  allowed  to  become  too  glaring. 
A  boy  must  reckon  seriously  with  this  matter.  If  it 
is  in  spelling,  or  in  the  incorrect  formation  of  sen- 
tences, or  in  any  exhibition  of  low  life  or  bad  morals, 
a  boy  should  have  a  knowledge  of  the  serious  fact,  and 
should  labor  with  particular  diligence  to  make  amends. 
If  the  wind,  or  current  strikes  the  side  of  the  boat 
near  its  bow,  the  man  on  the  lee  side  has  the  laboring 
oar,  and  must  play  up  the  current,  as  the  wind  and 
time  give  him  heavy  work  rowing  up, 

Up  with  all  his  strength, 

while  his  seat  mate  can  almost  rest  on  his  oar.  If  a 
person  were  as  lopsided  in  his  physical  stature  as  he  is 
in  his  mental  makeup,  it  would  pass  for  a  deformity. 
The  Bible's  plain  requirement  is  that  mind  and  heart 
and  character  shall  have  a  good,  all  around  develop- 
ment, that  the  man  may  be  thoroughly  furnished  unto 
all  good  works.  If  I  were  a  boy  again  I  would  give 
more  diligent  attention  to  those  branches  in  which  I 
was  born  short.  I  know  a  man  who  was  born  short  in 
the  matter  of  one  qualification  for  a  successful  life. 
Yet  in  association  with  him  the  deficiency  would 
hardly  be  detected.  He  knew  what  it  was,  and  every 
day,  his  life  long,  he  kept  it  in  mind  to  effect  a  remedy. 

[63] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

If  I  were  you,  and  went  to  school 
I'd  never  break  the  smallest  rule, 
And  it  should  be  my  teacher's  joy 
To  say  she  had  no  better  boy. 

And  'twould  be  true, 

If  I  were  you. 

If  I  were  you,  I'd  always  tell 
The  truth,  no  matter  what  befell; 
For  two  things  only  I  despise, 
A  coward  heart  and  telling  lies; 

And  you  would,  too, 

If  I  were  you. 

If  I  were  a  boy  again  I  would  remember  that  the 
mind  does  not  remain  the  same  after  a  person  has 
read  a  good  book.  If  a  boy,  as  he  goes  along,  should 
take  out  and  read  thirty  excellent  books  they  would 
mark  him  noticeably  as  an  intelligent  boy,  and  he 
would  show  them  by  his  talk.  Looking  back  over  his 
life  and  reviewing  his  friends,  he  would  find  that  in 
some  of  the  choicest  cases  the  books  he  had  read,  had 
brought  himself  and  his  friends  together.  These 
thirty  books,  in  a  certain  sense,  would  be  the  boy. 
They  would  supply  such  a  factor  in  him,  that  any 
person,  who  is  much  with  him,  would  not  only  notice 
them  in  him,  but  would  observe  that  he  himself  was 
profited  by  association  with  the  boy  that  read  the 
books.  If  I  were  a  boy  again  I  would  not  spend  so 
much  time  on  fugitive  literature.  I  would  instead  read 
fine  books.  When  you  are  spending  a  few  days  at 
a  country  hotel,  or  in  a  summer  camp,  notice  the 

[64] 


IF  I  WERE  A  BOY  AGAIN 

men  pick  up,  and  then  pick  up  again,  and  read  some 
chance  saffron  colored  newspaper  that  some  guest  has 
left.  Their  minds  are  hungry.  They  are  not  nearly 
as  well  fed  as  their  bodies.  Opportunity  to  read  books 
comes  at  different  times  to  different  persons.  As  this 
matter  is  so  vital  to  improvement,  and  as  life's  duties 
may  be  prohibitive  on  certain  days,  and  as  both  mind 
and  spirit  have  their  moods,  let  me  recommend  the 
observance  of  a  Scriptural  period,  and  resolve  on 
three  hours  of  reading  in  a  fine,  instructive  book  each 
week.  This  is  less  mechanical  and  an  atonement  can 
thus  be  readily  made  if  one  is  prevented  from  his 
happy  half  hour  on  some  of  the  days.  Give  a  man 
a  taste  for  reading  good  books,  and  the  means  of  grati- 
fying it,  and  the  best  single  contribution  to  educa- 
tion and  intelligence  is  assured. 

There  is  no  tonic  like  a  book. 

I  can  remember  my  several  vacations  in  terms  of  the 
books  I  read.  They  mark  events  never  to  be  effaced. 
Currents  are  thus  set  in  motion  that  change  the 
course  of  many  a  life.  I  find  great  pleasure  now 
in  re-reading  the  books  I  read  when  a  boy.  They 
fascinate  like  old  songs.  Those  first  books  came  at 
me  with  such  force  and  freshness  of  impression  that 
I  find  I  remember  the  positions  of  the  paragraphs 
on  the  page.  The  savor  of  such  books  is  like  the  smell 
of  fruit.  If  I  were  a  boy  again  I  would  stop  once 
for  all  the  enfeebling  habit  of  dawdling  over  a 
book.  It  enervates  the  mind  and  comes  from  reading 
ephemeral  literature  that  does  not  deserve  the  name 

[65] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

of  literature  at  all.  It  shows  that  the  real  reading 
habit  is  not  developed.  If  I  were  a  boy  again  and 
found  in  my  possession  any  bad  books  I  would  throw 
them  in  fhe  furnace.  I  wish  we  could  make  a  fire 
of  them  all.  I  would  exult  to  see  the  smoke  of  them 
ascend  like  that  of  Sodom  and  Gommorrah.  I  would 
not  want  to  be  found  dead  with  a  bad  book  in  my 
trunk,  in  my  possession.  God  can  read. 


[66] 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  STICK  GIRLS  OF  VENICE 

Matt  11 :  29.     Take  my  yoke. 

Who  are  those  handsome,  graceful  brunettes 
that  have,  across  their  shoulders,  a  spar  of  wood, 
long  as  an  alpen  stock  having  tackles  from  its  pro- 
jecting ends  to  which  burdens  are  attached?  They 
are  called  "the  stick  girls  of  Venice/'  In  that  quaint 
city  built  right  up  out  of  the  shoals  of  the  Adriatic, 
there  is  "water,  water  everywhere,  but  not  a  drop 
to  drink. ' '  Hence  under  a  summer  sun,  in  a  hot  coun- 
try, these  courteous  attractive  girls  are  welcome  as 
the  gracious  carriers  of  water.  Their  pitchers,  or 
rather  urns,  are  more  easily  borne  by  reason  of  this 
shaft  or  contrivance,  or  harness,  or  ox-collar  that  is 
worn  to  ease  their  load.  Instead  of  stooping  as  they 
travel  with  heavy  weights,  they  stand  up  conspicu- 
ously straight.  They  shoulder  their  load.  The  yoke 
is  easy  and  the  burden  is  light.  "It  is  good  for  a 
man  that  he  bear  the  yoke  in  his  youth. 

We  take  for  our  type  a  minister's  son. 
At  ten  years  of  age,  his  father  having  died,  he  must 
help  his  widowed  mother.     He  is  employed  to  drive 
the  wagon  of  a  grocer.    At  thirteen  he  is  hard  at  work 
hoisting  ice.     Boy-like,  a  railroad  attracts  him  and 

[67] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

he  applies  for  work  to  a  superintendent  who  intro- 
duced him  to  the  broom  to  sweep  out  and  dust  the 
cars.  How  could  any  boy  begin  more  modestly,  or 
be  less  assisted,  no  influence,  no  favoritism,  no  rich 
or  powerful  relatives  or  friends.  A  burden  abso- 
lutely unavoidable  was  appointed  him  in  the  early 
school  boy  period  of  life.  So  we  see  him  shoveling 
gravel  on  a  night  construction  train.  Next  we  find 
him  inspecting  ties  in  the  roadbed,  his  wages  being 
advanced  to  a  dollar  a  day.  On  becoming  brakeman 
he  pays  $18  a  month  for  his  board  and  lodging,  sends 
$20  home  to  his  mother,  and  has  $2.00  a  month  for 
luxuries.  Across  his  cheerful  path  comes  a  comfortless, 
dejected,  sour-visaged  man  who,  meeting  him  said, 
"Well,  Herbert,  I  suppose  you  think  your  fortune 
is  made  now  you  have  become  a  brakeman,  but  let 
me  tell  you  what  will  happen.  You  will  be  a  brake- 
man four  or  five  years  and  then  they  will  make  you 
a  conductor  at  about  $100  a  month,  and  there  you 
will  stick  all  your  life."  "Do  you  suppose,"  he  re- 
plied, "I  am  going  to  be  satisfied  with  remaining  a 
conductor?  I  mean  to  be  president  of  a  railroad." 
Soon  after  this  the  story  having  been  passed  around, 
they  began  to  call  him  President  Vreeland,  and  the 
instructions  and  packages  sent  to  him  would  be  so 
marked.  One  day  he  received  word  that  the  super- 
intendent wanted  to  see  him,  and  on  presenting  him- 
self was  asked,  "Are  you  the  good-looking  brakeman 
who  was  on  that  special  train  yesterday  who  shows 
his  teeth  when  he  smiles?"  He  said  he  certainly  was 

[68] 


THE   STICK  GIRLS   OF  VENICE 

on  the  special  when  the  president  and  directors  passed 
over  the  road  to  inspect  its  physical  condition,  but 
he  did  not  know  about  the  matter  of  the  teeth.  For 
a  fact  it  appeared  the  day  before  that  he  knew  all 
about  the  road  and  was  asked  many  questions  touch- 
ing it.  He  had  walked  over  parts  of  it,  as  we  have 
seen.  Railroads,  especially  small  ones,  often  change 
ownership.  After  such  an  occasion  he  received  this 
letter,  "Mr.  Herbert  H.  Vreeland,  Dear  Sir:  At  a 
meeting  of  the  stockholders  you  were  unanimously 
elected  a  director  of  the  company.  At  a  subsequent 
meeting  of  the  directors  you  are  unanimously  elected 
President  and  General  Manager,  your  duties  to  com- 
mence immediately. " 

What  sustained  this  hard  working  filial,  self- 
denying,  ambitious,  resolute  boy  and  young  man  in 
cold  and  rain,  in  privation  and  unceasing  toil  in  ex- 
cessive weariness,  and  in  bearing  the  derision  of  those 
who  lacked  his  purpose  to  be  and  to  become? 

His  hopes. 

Alexander  having  conquered  kingdoms  divided  them 
among  his  generals.  And  what  do  you  retain  for 
yourself  ?  My  hopes.  *  *  We  are  saved  by  hope. ' '  When 
a  patient  gives  up  hope  his  collapse  follows.  Burdens 
are  inevitable,  loads  are  unavoidable,  tasks  are  not  un- 
desirable. In  carrying  them  take  my  yoke.  Take  the 
means  of  sustaining  them  easily  and  pleasantly.  Hope 
will  meet  your  need.  That  is  what  you  want.  What  in 
itself  was  unbearable  already  sits  easier.  It  does  not 
pull  down  so  insufferably.  The  burden  is  light.  A  good 

[69] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

way  to  judge  of  a  thing  is  to  make  it  a  negative  quan- 
tity. It  would  be  cruel  to  make  the  unquestioning  oxen 
turn  the  furrows  in  a  field,  or  drag  home  the  great 
heavy  loads  from  the  meadows  without  a  yoke  that 
makes  the  best  of  their  condition.  It  is  not  an  im- 
position. It  is  a  welcome,  needful,  opportune  con- 
tribution, and  without  it  you  are  like  men  trying  to 
build  a  house  without  tools.  The  Indians  have  been 
for  a  long  time  in  a  field  with  no  harness,  no  tools, 
no  engines.  They  were  unacquainted  with  the  plough 
and  without  skill  sufficient  to  draw  any  service  from 
the  lower  animals.  To  use  a  yoke  marks  a  decided 
step  in  civilization.  It  is  a  degradation  of  labor  for 
boys  to  enter  upon  it  without  those  mighty  hopes 
that  make  them  men.  Here  is  the  difference  between 
life  weariness  and  life  freshness.  The  one  goal  of  the 
Hindoo  is  to  escape  from  life.  Hope  is  a  gospel 
that  does  not  dispose  of  the  lead,  but  supplies  a  yoke 
that  fits  us  and  ministers  the  contagion  of  a  strange 
joy  by  which  hard  things  are  made  easy,  and  heavy 
burdens  become  light.  Wearing  the  yoke  our  life 
labor  is  not  only  pleasant,  that  is  not  enough  to  say 
of  it.  It  is  effective.  A  cheerful,  hearty,  hopeful 
worker  is  the  one  most  likely  to  do  his  work  well. 
Name  something  that  will  do  as  much  for  a  man,  for 
a  soldier,  for  a  church,  for  a  young  person  of  either 
sex,  as  a  good,  healthy,  resolute,  undying,  revivifying 
hope.  It  is  the  best  tonic  for  mental  and  spiritual 
lassitude.  It  is  nature's  great  invigorator  in  an 
epidemic  of  discouragement.  It  is  a  master  key  which 

[70] 


THE   STICK  GIRLS   OF  VENICE 

not  only  opens  particular  doors,  but  carries  you 
through  the  whole  house.  The  light  of  hope  scatters 
despondency.  A  real  dullard,  not  having  perception 
enough  to  appreciate,  or  recognize,  the  gigantic  power 
of  hope,  attempts  to  teach  in  print  that  William 
Carey,  the  real  founder  of  missionary  enterprises, 
although  desperately  poor,  heavily  burdened,  ought 
to  have  reversed  the  order  in  his  motto  and  to  have 
said,  "Attempt  great  things  for  God,  and  expect 
great  things  of  God."  Oh,  no,  no!  His  order  was 
right.  A  man  attempts  because  he  expects.  If  he 
expects  he  attempts. 

Our  beloved  church  greatly  honors  John  Newton 
by  the  use  of  an  inordinate  number  of  his  hymns,  as 
the  book  in  use  shows,  for  example  these, 

/'Safely  Through  Another  Week, 
One  There  Is  Above  All  Others 
While  with  ceaseless  course  the  sun 
How  sweet  the  name  of  Jesus  sounds 
Come,  my  soul  thy  suit  prepare 
Glorious  things  of  thee  are  spoken 
Amazing  grace,  how  sweet  the  sound 
Quiet  Lord  my  froward  heart — "    and    fully    as    many 
others. 

As  a  youth  our  author  was  inclined  to  eat  the 
bread  of  idleness.  He  led  an  easy  life,  he  was  dis- 
posed only  to  swim  with  the  stream. 

He  was  dilatory,  dreamy,  unawakened. 
He   was   distinguished   only,    as   he    affirms,    by   his 
habitual   indolence.     It   is    interesting   to   see    him 

[71] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

struggle  with  language  in  his  attempts  to  put  in  words 
his  experience  in  an  affair  of  the  heart.  He  says 
that  novelists  are  thought  to  use  too  much  color  in 
painting  the  ardent  passion  that  is  felt  when  the 
affections  are  touched.  He  states,  that  in  degree,  his 
feelings,  for  a  fact  actually  equaled  all  that  the 
writers  of  romance  have  imagined.  He  declares  that 
this  violent  and  commanding  passion  never  banished 
its  object  for  a  single  hour  together  from  his  waking 
thoughts.  It  was  unalterable.  It  never  abated,  nor 
lost  its  influence  in  his  heart  from  its  first  hour.  It 
roused  him  from  the  do-nothing  habit  which  he  had 
contracted,  and  which  seemed  confirmed.  It  gave 
direction  to  all  his  views  and  hopes  and  exertions. 
He  considered  everything  he  was  concerned  with  in 
a  new  light.  Self-transformation  at  first,  and  achieve- 
ment appeared  so  impracticable  and  impossible,  and 
he  thought  of  work  with  such  revulsion  that  his  only 
restraint  from  suicide  consisted  in  the  fact  that  he 
could  not  bear  to  have  her,  he  loved,  think  meanly  of 
him  when  dead.  His  reluctance  to  an  active  life  was 
over-powered.  He  became  industrious.  He  attained 
greatness  and  usefulness.  As  we  have  seen,  he  has 
assured  earthly  immortality.  His  beginnings  were 
encompassed  with  embarrassments  and  difficulties. 
He  was  ill-conditioned  and  often  at  his  wit's  end.  He 
was  not  out  of  the  woods  for  seven  long  years.  His 
mind  was  vagrant  and  needed  discipline,  which  was 
a  good  thing  for  him.  It  is  an  indispensable  factor 
in  a  well-ordered,  well-directed  life.  His  work  was 

[72] 


THE   STICK  GIRLS   OF  VENICE 

grievous.     His  task  was  formidable,  oppressive,  in- 
surmountable.   How  can  a  person  pick  up  and  bear, 
through  a  long  period,  a  task  like  his? 
Take  my  yoke. 

It  is  love.  It  will  give  you  patience,  persistence, 
endurance,  success.  Under  severe  oppression  "  Jacob 
served  seven  years  for  Rachel  and  they  seemed  to  him 
but  a  few  days  for  the  love  he  had  to  her."  Women 
are  often  heard  to  exclaim,  "I  would  not  once  have 
believed  that  I  could  have  carried  the  load  that  my 
circumstances  have  imposed  upon  me."  You  could 
not  unaided.  You  had  the  yoke.  It  assists  in  the 
task.  It  stands  for  the  difference  and  here  you  are 
with  an  insufferable  work  all  accomplished,  and  a 
great  surprise  to  yourself.  With  the  aid  of  that  ex- 
pedient you  have  done  the  impossible.  Do  you  allow 
yourself  to  be  ruled  by  your  likes,  or  by  your  dis- 
likes? Is  the  emphasis  on  what  is  distasteful,  or  on 
what  you  enjoy?  Which  is  it  that  most  influences 
your  attitude  and  your  spirits  ? 

In  the  twelfth  volume  of  a  series  of  books  called 
The  Library  of  Oratory  is  the  Inaugural  Address  of 
President  Eliot.  His  first  sentence  refers  to  the 
arduous  labors  to  which  he  is  called.  His  task  seems 
beyond  his  power.  His  unaided  nature  would  recoil. 
New  great  departments  in  Harvard  are  to  be  created 
and  financed.  He  seems  to  be  commissioned  to  build 
bricks  without  straw.  "He  bends  to  take  up  this 
weighty  charge  with  a  deep  sense  of  insufficiency . ' ' 
Heed  the  text,  Take  my  yoke.  And  his  next  sentence 

[73] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

shows  that  it  was  this  yoke  literally  that  gave  him 
"youthful  joy  and  a  good  courage."  The  yoke  he 
took  we  name  Example.  "High  examples,"  he  ex- 
claims, "will  lighten  the  way."  His  exalted  office 
has  been  filled  by  his  predecessors  successfully. 
"Others  have  done  it."  This  is  the  yoke  that  is  used 
most  widely.  It  is  inspirational.  Example  is  every- 
thing. Example  is  the  school  of  mankind.  A  man 
cannot  drive  a  horse  that  has  never  seen  one.  Immi- 
grants come  to  our  shores  and  begin  at  the  lowest  rung 
of  the  ladder.  Others  have  climbed.  Astor  and  Car- 
negie, also  those  whose  names  are  blazoned  on  the 
marble  palaces  of  Broadway  and  Fifth  Avenue  have 
succeeded.  Others  have  made  good. 

Take  our  little  sister  Essex. 
What  a  shining  galaxy  of  men  that  town  has  pro- 
duced. Every  boy  must  feel,  Others  have  risen  here 
to  honor  and  usefulness.  Why  should  not  I?  Both 
men  and  women  have  hard  tasks  and  anxieties  and 
experiences  awaiting  them.  Others  have  met  them, 
others  have  been  successful.  What  man  hath  done 
man  can  do.  Take  my  yoke.  Example  is  most  effec- 
tive when  it  is  repeated.  If  the  neighbors,  all  per- 
sons show  good  gardens  then  a  good  garden  is  a  possi- 
bility. If  others  are  good  players  it  makes  you  locate 
your  deficiency  just  where  it  needs  to  be  placed.  The 
transfigured  yoke  is  Christ's  heavenly  example. 
"Follow  me."  "That  we  should  walk  even  as  He 
walked."  "When  he  was  reviled  he  reviled  not 

[74] 


THE  STICK  GIRLS   OF  VENICE 

again/'  Blessed  Redeemer,  Holy  Saviour,  Teacher 
sent  from  God,  "be  Thou  our  pattern,  Thou  our  guide. 
Make  me  bear  more  of  Thy  gracious  image  here." 

And  now  comes  a  woman  from  Byfield  and 
Ipswich  passing  through  Salem  on  her  way  toward 
the  Berkshires  to  "hang  a  school  on  the  brow  of  the 
mountain."  Public  sentiment  in  her  day  drew  the 
line  on  women  as  innovators  in  education,  and  did  not 
believe  in  a  cultural  movement  led  by  a  girl.  Dark, 
portentous  clouds  hang  over  Mt.  Holyoke.  Mary 
Lyon  is  brain-weary.  She  buried  her  face  in  her 
hands  and  rose  again  to  her  well  nigh  insupportable 
burden  as  if  God  had  measured  for  her  a  heavier  load 
than,  unaided,  she  could  bear.  Take  my  yoke. 

Gentle,  resolute  spirit. 

It  is  faith.  It  removes  mountains.  It  does  the 
work  of  heroines.  It  is  the  world's  chief  power.  It 
lightens  labor.  It  faces  death.  Faith  in  a  principle 
ces  a  soldier  invincible.  Have  you  burdens?  As 
the  Saviour  says,  Where  is  your  faith?  Take  my 
yoke.  To  believe  is  power;  to  doubt  is  impotence. 
According  to  your  faith,  be  it  unto  you. 

The  camel  at  the  close  of  day 
Kneels  down  upon  the  sandy  plain, 

To  have  his  burden  lifted  off, 
And  rest  to  gain. 

My  soul,  thou,  too,  shouldst  to  thy 
When  daylight  draweth  to  a  close, 

And  let  thy  Master  lift  the  load 
And  grant  repose. 

[75] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 


Else  how  could'st  thou,  tomorrow,  meet 
With  all  tomorrow's  work  to  do, 

If  thou  the  burden  all  the  night 
Dost  carry  through  ? 

The  camel  kneels  at  break  of  day, 
To  have  his  guide  replace  his  load 

Then  rises  up  anew  to  take 
The  desert  road. 

So  thou,  shouldst  kneel  at  morning's  dawn 
That  God  may  give  thee  daily  care; 

Assured  that  He  no  load  too  great 
Will  make  thee  bear. 


[76] 


CHAPTER  IX 
SPEAKING  WELL. 

And  the  Lord  said,  I  know  that  he  can  speak  well. 

Ex.  4:14. 

It  is  about  the  last  word  in  high  praise,  and 
makes  the  record,  to  have  One  who  has  perfect  ideals 
and  standards,  and  has  acquaintance  with  every  mas- 
terpiece in  the  varied  languages,  and  with  all  persons 
that  make  any  attempt  at  oratory,  say  of  a  man,  I 
know  that  he  can  speak  well.  Honorable  mention  is 
usually  very  creditable  and  very  welcome.  But  it 
must  have  been  a  supreme  encouragement,  as  pleas- 
ant as  it  was  unexpected,  to  have  the  Judge  of  all  the 
earth  make  a  direct,  distinct  reference,  not  only  to 
a  man's  public  address,  but  also  to  its  excellent 
quality.  In  vigor  and  energy  Moses  must  ever  re- 
main unequalled  among  the  children  of  men.  And 
here  is  the  implication  that  his  brother  could  not  only 
say  the  thing  to  be  said,  but  could  say  it  gracefully 
and  effectively,  and  when  we  think  of  Miriam,  who 
was  both  a  singer  and  speaker,*  we  are  astonished 
to  find  such  rare  gifts  scattered  in  one  family.  This 
approbation  of  Aaron's  address  is  based  upon  an 
occurrence  in  which  he  exhibited  his  natural,  or  his 


Ex.   15  :  20,  Num.   12  :  2. 


[77] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

acquired  gift  for  speech.  We  wish  we  had  some 
account  of  the  occasion,  and  most  of  all  that  we  had 
the  discourse  that  brought  to  him  the  divine  com- 
mendation. We  explore  the  pages  of  history  and 
search  the  sacred  records  in  vain  to  find  it.  It  is 
obvious  from  the  text,  that  the  same  Father  in  Heaven 
that  regards  the  fall  of  the  sparrow,  notes  whether 
a  man  speaks  ill  or  well.  As  all  Scripture  is  profita- 
ble that  we  may  be  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all 
good  works,  it  is  worth  our  while  to  determine  what 
the  elements  of  discourse  must  be  that  are  likeliest 
to  merit  the  Creator's  commendation. 

The  first  unquestionably  is  the  accent  of  con- 
viction. There  is  no  successful  speaking  without  it. 
A  man  may  have  the  gestures  of  Delsarte,  the  fluency 
of  sand  in  the  hour  glass,  the  range  in  words  of  Burke, 
or  Eufus  Choate,  the  melody  of  Whitefield  or  Everett. 
Yet  if  he  has  not  the  passion  of  conviction  he  is  like 
Samson,  shorn,  weak  like  any  other  man,  who  wist 
not  that  the  Lord  was  departed  from  him.  A  man 
cannot  be  earnest  at  will.  It  would  be  an  affectation 
than  which  nothing  is  more  insipid.  A  man  may  be 
entertaining  without  sincerity; 

He  cannot  be  impressive. 

A  speaker  must  say  what  he  means  and  mean 
what  he  says.  He  enters  upon  an  address  because 
he  has  something  to  say,  and  not  because  he  is  invited 
to  say  something.  George  Fox,  of  whom  our  William 
Penn  said,  "His  presence  expressed  a  religious  maj- 
esty," had  a  wonderful  power  in  speaking  because  his 

[78] 


SPEAKING  WELL 

sincerity  was  unquestioned.  He  possessed  extreme 
fascination  over  the  masses  because  his  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  Scripture,  to  which  he  says  he  had  great 
openings,  was  so  decided  that  he  invariably  bade  men 
tremble  at  the  word  of  the  Lord.  The  plainest  person 
agitated  with  the  passion  of  conviction  affects  us 
more  than  the  greatest  speaker  without  it. 

It  is  suggestive  next  to  observe  that  measure 
St.  Paul  adopts  when,  in  a  crisis,  he  must  speak  for 
his  life.  He  knew  the  hiding  of  his  power.  He  falls 
back  instantly  and  solidly  upon  a  plain  statement  of 
his  experience.  "I  think  myself  happy,  King 
Agrippa."  This  animates  us  like  a  trumpet.  It  in- 
dicates  confidence  and  victory.  When  a  man  begins 
an  oratorical  effort,  saying,  "I  think  myself  happy," 
the  conditions  are  right,  the  atmosphere  is  favorable. 
We  are  to  hear  him  at  his  best.  We  shall  witness  the 
full  expression  of  his  strength.  He  makes  past  events 
live  again.  He  spoke  as  one  inspired.  It  is  only  by 
the  fresh  feelings  of  the  heart  that  mankind  can  be 
powerfully  affected. 

"I  speak  not  to  disprove  what  Brutus  spoke, 
But  here  I  am  to  speak  what  I  do  know." 
This  is  not  open  to  any  disputation.     You  cannot 
disprove  it  any  more  than  you  can  an  affection.    It 
is  established  as  a  fact.    Paul's  testimony  to  the  vision 
he  had  on  the  Damascus  Road  created  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  whole  Western  World. 

Look  in  thy  heart  and  speak, 
and  you  have  the  field  to  yourself.     This  suggests 

[79] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

the  method  that  will  be  employed  if  ever  the  masses 
are  turned  to  righteousness.  It  has  spontaneity 
which  is  the  main  charm  of  spoken  words.  It 
has  the  human  mingled  with  the  divine  note;  and 
is  shown  to  be  used  with  overmastering  results  by 
the  most  forceful  speakers.  No  amount  of  simulated 
animation  or  enthusiasm  could  secure  these  magnetic 
effects.  Some  eminent  statesmen,  like  Senator  Buck- 
ingham of  Connecticut,  and  Governor  Briggs  of 
Massachusetts,  first  learned  to  meet  audiences  in  little 
meetings  for  prayer  and  testimony.  Robert  Collyer, 
a  remarkable  orator,  a  great  preacher,  had  finished 
all  the  schooling  he  ever  received  when  he  was  in  his 
eighth  year.  As  a  result  of  a  great  sorrow  he  found 
his  way  into  a  Methodist  meeting  house  and  began 
to  express  what  he  felt.  From  a  few  words  uttered 
standing  by  his  seat  in  the  meeting,  he  began  to 
preach.  It  became  the  custom  to  go  through  the  vil- 
lage ringing  a  bell,  when  he  was  to  address  the  meet- 
ing, to  call  the  people  together.  The  first  thing  noted 
about  Peter  and  John  was  that  they  were  unlearned 
and  ignorant  men.  Then  why  attempt  to  speak? 
They  are  irrepressible.  "We  cannot  but  speak." 
Their  experience  cannot  remain  as  a  fire  in  their 
bones.  It  must  some  way  utter,  or  as  the  word  means, 
outer  itself.  It  must  come  out.  They  felt  like  Joseph, 
the  son  of  immortal  memory,  when  he  saw  his  brother 
Benjamin  and  could  not  speak  to  him.  We  have  here 
evidence  of  a  quality  which  we  call  soul.  Passion  is 
more  moving  even  than  the  cold  classical  character- 

[80] 


SPEAKING  WELL 

istics.  It  is  said  in  print  that  President  Gilman  was 
so  much  impressed  during  his  Yale  career  with  the 
severity  with  which  public  effort  was  repressed  in 
insisting  that  it  was  foolish  for  young  men  to  come 
into  the  limelight  before  their  training  was  further 
advanced,  that  he  determined,  on  assuming  charge  of 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  to  put  the  young  men 
of  that  institution  into  active  public  work  as  soon  as 
they  had  been  trained  sufficiently  to  do  it  well,  and 
the  lead  of  that  institution  in  political  and  other  pub- 
lic fields,  and  a  large  part  of  its  present  educational 
power  are  to  be  traced  to  the  public  work  which  its 
students  have  already  produced.  While  young,  they 
have  acquired  world-wide  fame. 

An  outstanding  factor  that  would  give  Aaron 
power  in  speaking  would  be  his  sense  of  what  stood 
behind  him,  for  whom  he  spoke,  the  high  source  and 
importance  of  the  ideas  he  represented.  Martin 
Luther's  courage  and  energy  and  overwhelming  utter- 
ances came  straight  from  his  consciousness  that  he 
was  not  speaking  for  self  alone,  but  for  Christendom 
that  was  groaning  under  the  infamous  practice  of 
the  sale  of  indulgences,  and  under  the  reign  of  sheer 
superstition.  He  felt  that  he  was  pleading  the  cause 
of  the  Almighty  himself. 

It  is  not  Luther  alone  that  strikes. 
It  is  all  that  is  behind  him  and  that  is  irresistible. 
When    we    go    to    conduct    evangelistic    services    in 

[81] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

I 

strange  places,  it  is  the  practice  to  take  with  us 
some  strong  spirits  who  think  as  we  do,  for  whom 
also  we  speak  when  we  set  out  our  experience  of  the 
doctrines  of  grace.  When  we  voice  our  feelings  we 
utter  also  theirs.  The  sympathy  they  feel  is  a  factor 
with  us.  It  will  be  found  for  a  fact  that  currents  of 
influence  are  thus  set  in  motion  which  are  effective. 
Not  Peter  alone,  but  Peter  standing  up  with  the  eleven 
produced  the  startling  effects  at  Pentecost.  Robert 
Bruce  felt  within  himself  the  might  and  courage  of 
the  whole  nation,  when,  as  champion  of  Scotland, 
he  fought  with  resistless  valor  at  Bannockburn. 
Washington  stated  a  forcible  truth,  with  great  aptness 
when,  before  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  he  told  his 
suffering  soldiers  to  keep  up  heart  against  their  ene- 
mies, for  their  cause  is  bad.  Their  men  are  conscious 
of  it.  Many  of  us  have  heard  a  messenger  of  God 
who  made  us  feel  that  he  was  backed  by  the  weight 
of  the  universe  and  by  the  divine  spirit.  He  seemed 
almost  more  than  human.  It  was  the  weakness  of 
Napoleon  in  his  last  days  as  Leigh  Hunt  pointed  out 
that  no  great  principle  stood  by  him. 

There  is  one  element  in  speaking  well,  like  Aaron, 
that  invites  cultivation,  and  that  is 

The  art  of  putting  things. 

In  this  matter  Lincoln  was  a  master.  The  perora- 
tion in  his  crowning  utterance  at  Gettysburg  is 
immortal  by  it.  It  has  a  rhythm  approximating 
the  rhythm  of  poetry.  It  is  the  throb  of  strong 
feeling  like  that  in  the  Bible,  preserved  by  the  trans- 

[82] 


SPEAKING  WELL 

lators  in  the  King  James  Version.  At  Springfield, 
Illinois,  his  opponent,  Douglas,  was  crushed.  It  was 
done  by  one  sentence,  direct,  compact,  and  pungent, 
well  put,  and,  as  Douglas  himself  said,  "in  a  per- 
fectly courteous  manner."  The  Springfield  Journal 
next  day  used  the  words,  "  Lincoln  quivered  with 
feeling  and  emotion."  He  seemed  overwhelmed  with 
the  magnitude  and  grandeur  of  his  theme  and  he 
spoke  with  such  impassioned  earnestness  as  to  storm 
the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  He  straightened  himself 
out,  as  one  man  said,  like  a  jack-knife,  and  an  aged 
man  declared,  "He  seemed  to  be  about  twenty  foot 
high"  and  at  one  stroke  so  stated  the  case  of  Douglas 
that  he  could  not  deny  it  nor,  on  the  other  hand 
answer  it.  He  said  he  would  reply  in  the  evening. 
"When  the  night  came  he  was  not  there  and  the  prom- 
ised remarks  were  never  made.  "I  never  went  to 
school, ' '  said  Lincoln, '  *  more  than  twelve  months  in  my 
life. ' '  No  man  gets  the  art  of  putting  things  by  educa- 
tion alone.  Lincoln's  stories  show  that  he  had  taught 
himself  to  grasp  the  idea  firmly  and  stand  it  out  viv- 
idly. He  acquired  the  power  of  seeing  when  he  began  a 
sentence,  all  through  it  and  of  knowing  what  the 
end  is  to  be. 

Lincoln  when  alone  read  aloud. 
He  was  educating  his  ear  to  the  melody  of  words  and 
felicity  of  expression.  As  a  boy  he  threw  himself 
into  debates  in  which  he  would,  in  turn,  represent 
both  sides,  and  with  such  ardor  that  his  father  for- 
bade them  during  hours  for  work,  for,  as  his  father 

[83] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

complained,  when  Abe  begins  to  speak,  all  hands 
flock  to  hear  him.  Lincoln 's  ancestor  landed  at  Salem. 
He  himself,  born  as  lowly  as  the  son  of  God,  in  an 
environment  of  abject  penury,  as  a  boy,  in  the  uni- 
versity of  hard  knocks,  took  two  elective  studies,  ways 
and  means,  and  the  art  of  putting  things.  With 
hardly  an  exception  every  great  orator  recites  how 
and  when  he  gained  his  practice.  Many  boys  act  as 
if  they  needed  none,  anyway  they  do  not  get  it.  Nor 
can  they  hide  behind  the  excuse  that  they  have  no 
gifts,  for  they  have  never  thoroughly  tested  them- 
selves in  a  fair  field,  and  it  is  for  a  trial  of  their 
powers  that  this  plea  is  being  made.  The  prizes  in 
all  departments  of  life,  large  and  small,  are  won  on 
a  very  small  margin  of  superiority,  which  is  chiefly 
mental.  We  notice  with  curious  interest  the  difficulty 
the  judges  have  in  deciding  who  is  most  deserving, 
showing  that  it  takes  but  little  to  turn  the  scale  toward 
him  who  gains  the  prize.  He  has  done  what  you 
could  have  done,  but  did  not  do.  Here  is  the  incite- 
ment for  a  young  person  to  add  to  his  power  even  the 
slightest  increment,  and  he  captures  everything. 
After  much  labor,  after  some  patience,  after  keeping 
up  courage,  when  success  comes,  it  appears  suddenly; 
as  good  fortune  did  to  the  old  gentleman  who  lost 
a  horse.  "Do  you  know  that  I  hunted  for  that  de- 
praved creature  for  three  weeks  and  could  not  find 
hide  nor  hair  of  it  ?  But  all  at  once,  one  day,  I  found 
it,  and  when  I  found  it  I  found  it  in  a  minute."  A 

[84] 


SPEAKING  WELL 

boy  ought  not  to  go  forward  into  citizenship  and 
responsibility  for  affairs  in  a  government  by  the  peo- 
ple without  giving  himself  training  in  the  art  of  put- 
ting things.  All  honor  to  the  Irish  men  that  in  such 
numbers  come  to  office  among  us.  Its  reason  being 
that  they  have  their  Phillips  debating  societies  and 
deliberately  train  themselves  for  office.  This  is  the 
explanation  of  the  undue  prominence  of  some  of  the 
humbler  localities  in  municipal  affairs.  The  east  side 
of  New  York  is 

A  spawning  ground  for  debate  and  debating  clubs. 
If  boys  organize  these  little  lyceums  other  boys  are 
drawn  into  them.  Witnessing  debate,  new  partici- 
pants are  stirred  up,  and  a  fresh  spirit  of  improve- 
ment is  developed  and  some  new  ideals  become  pop- 
ular. There  are  said  to  be  more  boys  on  the  east 
side  in  New  York  in  debating  clubs  than  in  boys' 
basketball  teams  or  baseball  teams  on  which  too 
we  place  great  value.  These  boys  have  old  heads. 
They  lack  gaiety,  buoyancy  of  spirits,  which  is  a  mis- 
fortune, but  they  have  instead  a  quality  of  earnest- 
ness. The  best  private  practice  in  the  art  of  putting 
things  is  found  in  the  use  of  Aesop's  Fables.  The 
author  was  a  negro,  an  Ethiop,  deriving  his  name 
from  that  fact,  but  he  had  the  art  of  putting  things 
and  the  higher  schooling  is,  to  hastily  read  one  of 
the  fables,  not  slowly  enough  to  commit  its  parts  to 
memory,  but  sufficiently  only,  to  get  its  main  point, 
and  then  seek  yourself  to  state  the  point  and  after 

[85] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

that  what  "this  fable  teaches/'  One  will  acquire 
an  art  that  universities  cannot  bestow.  In  the  gift 
to  the  world  of  the  kindergarten  Frobel  made  a  con- 
tribution that  is  beyond  computation  in  money. 
There  is  not  money  enough.  His  system  is  a  world 
better  than  his  account  of  it.  His  misfortune  is  a 
lack  of  expressing,  even  half  clearly,  or  forcibly,  or 
attractively,  his  ideas.  His  supporters  and  the 
staunchest  advocates  of  his  system  would  not  send  out 
statements  of  his  ideas  couched  in  his  words,  as  neither 
his  written  or  spoken  sentences  contributed  anything 
to  make  his  ideas  popular.  With  no  fault  in  his  sys- 
tem of  education,  its  extension  was  impracticable,  by 
him,  because  of  an  absence  of  ability  in  his  nature 
to  clearly  and  happily  state  his  case.  He  did  not 
realize  at  first  that  this  was  necessary,  or  lacking. 

Knowledge  undigested  is  sometimes  a  hindrance 
to  impressive  speech.  It  is  the  opening  of  an  address 
that  chokes  off  half  the  hearers.  The  silver  ought 
to  be  found  first  thing  in  the  fish's  mouth.  In  show- 
ing a  picture  do  not  stand  close  in  front  of  it  and  be 
yourself  the  means  of  obscuring  it.  A  lady  accounted 
for  the  difficulty  a  young  man  had  in  participating 
in  meeting,  by  saying, 

"He  has  not  got  ~by  himself  yet." 
So  long  as  a  person  is  conscious  chiefly  of  self  he 
cannot   speak  well  nor  be   a  blessing.     Next   after 
Nathaniel  Bowditch  and  Joseph  Choate,  lately  de- 
ceased, the  greatest  mind  Salem  has  produced,  Nath- 

[86] 


SPEAKING  WELL 

aniel  Hawthorne,  deploring  his  own  deficiencies, 
uttered  this  lament,  "God  may  forgive  sins;  but  awk- 
wardness has  no  forgiveness  in  heaven  or  in  earth." 
If  one  begins  young,  this  faultiness  can  be  overcome, 
by  public  declamation,  a  form  of  practice  now 
egregiously  and  wickedly  neglected.  If  young  men 
would  be  graciously  assisted,  by  the  angel  forces  of 
the  world,  they  should  choose  topics  that  place  them 
in  an  aittitude  to  speak  for  the  right,  for  the  absent, 
to  defend  the  friendless,  the  poor,  the  enslaved,  the 
enchained,  the  prisoner,  the  lost.  There  is  many  a 
cause  that  actually  needs  a  true  spokesman.  Having 
talents  for  speech,  a  young  man  ought  to  show  it 
by  some  more  popular  method  than  his  silence.  A 
good  speech,  well-spoken,  is  part  of  the  necessary  de- 
fence of  truth  and  the  right.  For  example,  looking 
at  the  matter  only  as  a  test  of  extemporaneous  ad- 
dress, a  man  will  rise  higher  and  do  better,  sounding 
a  clarion  note,  uttering  a  bugle  call,  not  as  a  dream- 
ing pacifist  who  assumes  that  one  side  in  a  strife,  is 
as  good  as  another,  nor  as  a  trimmer  in  politics,  nor 
a  time  server  in  morality,  a  weathervane  in  friend- 
ship, nor  as  a  hypocrite  in  religion,  but  rather  in 
praise  of  the  right  and  blame  of  the  wrong.  Public 
speakers  ought  to  feel,  that,  it  is  not  the  people  who 
are  at  fault,  in  not  being  convinced,  but  the  fault 
lies  at  the  speaker's  door.  This  gives  alertness  and 
reach,  and  insight  to  the  mind.  People  can  have  tem- 
perance if  they  can  get  the  votes,  and  as  they  have 

[87] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

the  right  of  the  argument  they  can  get  the  votes  if 
they  can  state  their  case  and  convince  the  people, 
who,  as  we  see  about  us,  are 

Waiting  for  leadership. 

Instead  of  standing  up  in  a  public  place  and  think- 
ing aloud,  it  is  better  to  have  directness  of  address 
to  the  audience  at  the  time  present.  The  aim  of  ex- 
pression is  impression.  Many  of  the  elements  inter- 
ring into  it  can  best  be  supplied  long  before  the  issue 
is  joined.  Some  men  are  too  rich  to  be  interested 
in  public  affairs.  Public  spirit  is  a  great  incitement 
to  speaking  well.  Great  events  promote  it.  Animated 
by  human  interest,  a  compact,  vigorous  readiness  of 
speech  is  often  needed  for  protection  of  unfriended 
truth,  and  the  vindication  of  imperilled  right.  Our 
text  and  theme  require  us  to  question  the  facts  in  a 
beautiful  sonorous  sentiment  and 

Ever  the  right  comes  uppermost, 
And  ever  is  justice  done. 

The  commonest  observation  has  recently  taught  that 
the  right  never  comes  uppermost  until  some  one  in- 
terposes for  it  and  helps  it  up,  and  justice  ever  re- 
quires painstaking  care  to  see  that  men  are  compelled 
to  observe  it  toward  those  unable  to  help  themselves 
or  to  make  appeal.  Our  clients  are  those  who  cannot 
speak  for  themselves.  The  greatest  gainers  by  a 
powerful,  effective  address  are  the  wronged,  the  down- 
trodden, common  humanity,  patriotism,  and  our  holy 
religion. 

[88] 


CHAPTER  X 

BOY  LOST 

They  found  him  not.    Luke  2:45. 

On  the  morning  of  the  third  day  of  the  search 
there  were  five  hundred  men,  it  is  said,  looking  for 
a  boy  that  had  become  confused  and  lost  in  the  thick 
woods  of  New  Hampshire.  His  father  was  felling 
trees  and  his  little  son  persuaded  his  mother  to  per- 
mit him  to  go  to  his  father  and  return  with  him  as 
he  came  home  from  his  work.  On  reaching  the  door, 
when  the  day  was  done,  the  mother  said,  with  un- 
feigned alarm,  " Where  is  Jacob?"  The  father  had 
no  knowledge  of  him.  He  had  not  seen  him.  Talk 
not  of  distress,  until  such  a  scene  as  that  desolated 
home  presented  has  been  witnessed.  On  the  frontier, 
which  has  a  knowledge  of  the  peril,  they  have  for  a 
familiar  song, 

Wake  the  boys  to  look  for  Nellie, 

Stay  not  for  the  dawn, 
Who  shall  sleep  when  from  the  mothers'  fold 

One  little  lamb  is  gone. 

The  father  of  little  Jacob  had  a  mile  to  walk  in  order 
to  enlist  his  nearest  neighbor  in  the  patrol  of  the 
woods.  Not  a  trace  of  the  missing  boy  being  dis- 
covered, the  men  were  abandoning  hope,  declaring 

[89] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

it  to  be  useless  to  go  further  in  quest  of  the  boy. 
The  mother,  learning  the  decision,  in  frantic  agony, 
could  not  bear  the  terrible  thought  that  he  might 
be  still  alive,  exposed  and  suffering.  Brave  men, 
unaccustomed  to  weep,  shed  tears  of  sympathy  at 
the  sight  of  her  grief.  They  formed  into  separate 
companies  and  took  different  directions,  having 
agreed,  like  the  ships  of  Columbus,  upon  signals  in 
the  event  of  discovery.  As  the  long  day  wore  away 
and  the  gloom  of  another  dismal  night  was  settling 
down,  as  with  raven  wings  upon  them,  the  echo  of 
a  very  distant  gun  breaks  upon  the  painful  silence. 
It  means  that  they  detect  a  trace.  The  suspense  is 
breathless.  A  second  gun  reverberates. 
It  signifies  he  is  found. 

A  third  shot  sets  the  news  afloat  upon  the  startled 
air,  And  he  is  alive.  There  was  no  one  of  the  five 
hundred  strong  men  but  shared  in  the  shout  of  joy. 
The  victorious  party  came  in  sight,  bearing  the  little 
hero  on  their  shoulders,  seated  on  a  hastily  con- 
structed chair,  made  of  poles  and  ever-greens.  The 
loss  of  a  boy,  it  appears,  is  not  a  matter  only  of  indi- 
vidual concern.  All  mother  hearts  feel  it  tenderly. 
Sympathy  is  contagious.  Strongest  men  are  fullest 
of  compassion.  Weariness  is  not  reckoned.  Hunger 
is  defied.  Feeling  knows  no  measure. 

There  arose  a  glad  cry  to  the  gate  of  Heaven, 
Rejoice,  for  I  have  found  mine  own. 

The  son  of  a  man  is  come  to  save  that  which  was 

[90] 


BOY  LOST 

lost.  He  is  interested  in  these  little  ones.  For  I 
say  unto  you  that  in  Heaven  their  angels  do  always 
behold  the  face  of  my  Father. 

When  the  Shunamite  woman  saw  that  she  had 
lost  her  son  she  called  unto  her  husband  and  said, 
"Send  me,  I  pray  thee,  that  I  may  run  to  the  man 
of  God."  Then  she  said,  "Drive  and  go  forward. 
Slack  not  thy  driving  for  me."  That's  a  mother, 
with  the  loss  of  her  son  in  the  balance.  With  a 
feeling  of  awe  I  have  looked  upon  a  father  when  the 
thought  of  losing  his  son  was  shaking  his  soul.  In  a 
wild,  sparsely  settled  portion  of  the  West,  in  passing 
at  night  from  one  town  to  another,  by  a  freight  train, 
I  sat  in  the  caboose  with  the  only  other  passenger,  a 
physician.  He  kept  anxiously  snapping  his  watch, 
and  as  if  he  had  forgotten  what  he  read  on  its  dial, 
he  would  look  again  to  discover  the  time.  He  said 
that  he  was  called,  by  a  telegram,  for  expert  service, 
in  the  case  of  a  boy  whose  condition  was  critical. 
At  the  next  stop  the  father  of  the  boy  was  to  meet 
him  and  hurry  him  to  the  little  sufferer.  As  he  left 
the  car  I  accompanied  him,  but  only  for  a  moment. 

It  was  no  village, 

only  a  solitary  signal  station.  A  span  of  horses  with  a 
light  carriage  was  backed  up  against  the  platform. 
A  man  was  placed  to  so  stand  in  front  of  the  horses 
that  no  time  should  be  lost  in  untying  a  halter.  The 
thing  that  impressed  me  was  the  silence,  the  solemnity, 
the  intensity  of  feeling.  Emotion  can  become  too  deep 
for  words.  The  father,  by  a  gesture  having  directed 

[91] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

the  doctor  to  a  seat  in  the  carriage,  took  up  the  reins 
and  whip  and  gave  the  word  to  the  horses.  The  prayer 
of  the  parents  in  a  case  like  this  is,  that  God  would 
give  them  back  their  child.  Then  he  is  God's  child  to 
give,  and  the  parents  to  receive.  This  three-fold  own- 
ership in  a  boy  is  beautiful  and  correct.  He  is  restored 
and  lent  to  the  parents.  Samuel,  to  use  his  mother's 
beautiful  saying,  was  lent  to  the  Lord  as  long  as  he 
lived.  There  was  God's  child  restored  to  the  par- 
ents. Here  is  the  child  of  fond  parents  who  lend  him 
to  the  Lord.  This  three-fold  interest  or  ownership 
is  the  point  on  which  the  incident  of  our  text  turns. 
Thy  father  and  I  have  sought  thee  sorrowing.  They 
doubtless  went  among  their  kinsfolk  and  acquain- 
ances  calling,  " Jesus,"  "Jesus."  "They  found  him 
not."  He  refers  to  his  other  relation,  to  his  father  in 
Heaven.  He  was  restored  to  his  parents.  He  went 
down  to  Nazareth  and  was  subject  unto  them,  but 
his  mother  kept  all  these  sayings  in  her  heart  that  he 
uttered  about  his  relation,  not  only  to  his  parents, 
but  to  his  father  in  Heaven.  In  Shakespeare's  play, 
Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  Speed  makes  the  obser- 
vation: The  shepherd  seeks  the  sheep,  and  not  the 
sheep  the  shepherd.  A  sheep  becomes  lost  not  be- 
cause it  is  vicious  or  defiant,  but  simply  because  it 
is  a  sheep  and  needs  a  shepherd.  During  a  long 
drive  in  South  Dakota,  as  the  night  was  coming  on, 
we  saw  a  solitary  disconsolate  sheep. 
It  is  a  pitiable  sight. 
Detached  from  the  flock,  it  was  exposed  to  certain 

[92] 


BOY  LOST 

death,  as  we  had  that  day  seen  wolves  about  the 
haystacks  and  prairies.  It  had  no  aptitude  what- 
ever looking  toward  self-help.  It  is  not  in  the  na- 
ture of  a  sheep  to  render  assistance  in  its  own  self- 
preservation.  Its  entire  dependence  is  on  the  shep- 
herd. A  lost  sheep  is  entirely  the  owner's  problem. 
"I  go  to  the  desert  to  find  my  sheep."  The  unending 
purpose  of  the  true  shepherd  is  in  the  words  of 
Luke,  "Until  he  find  it" 

In  our  largest  bank  a  very  prosperous  man 
dropped  a  dime,  and  it  rolled  away  and  he  kept 
looking  for  it.  Quite  a  company  became  interested 
in  his  resolve  to  recover  his  money.  A  man  who 
wanted  to  have  his  attention  tried  to  talk  to  him, 
but  he  was  still  sweeping  the  floor  and  its  corners 
with  his  eyes  in  the  hope  of  making  a  recovery.  The 
man  who  wanted  to  see  him,  in  desperation  took 
out  a  quarter  and  asked  him  to  take  it  and  forget 
the  dime.  He  had  not  discovered  the  principle  that 
we  are  seeking  to  suggest,  that  a  man  hates  to  lose 
a  thing.  It  is  a  characteristic  deeply  implanted  in  all 
natures.  It  is  true  of  the  Creator,  of  our  Saviour, 
and  of  us.  A  man  will  spend  more  time  recovering 
a  thing  than  he  would  in  earning  it.  It  is  about 
impossible  for  anyone  to  turn  his  back  on  a  thing 
that  is  lost.  Not  grasping  this  principle,  an  ex- 
positor will  sometimes  spend  an  undue  proportion 
of  his  time  in  expounding  the  parable  of  the  lost 
piece  of  silver  in  telling  about  its  value  and  its  his- 
tory. The  principle  that  caused  the  woman  to  light 

[93] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

the  candle  and  sweep  the  house  and  search  diligently 
was  her  unresting  nature  while  the  thing  was  lost. 
When  it  was  recovered  notice  the  occasion  of  her 
joy.  It  was  in  having  found  the  piece  she  had  lost. 
I  once  heard  a  sermon  on 

The  Lost  Boy, 

in  which  a  calculation  was  made  as  to  what  a  boy  cost 
when  he  was  a  year  old,  and  so  on  each  year  up  to  ten, 
and  the  point  was  made  that  a  father  could  not 
afford  to  lose  his  investment.  It  is  a  principle  which 
the  Creator  imbedded  in  the  man  and  not  the  money 
invested  in  the  boy  that  puts  resolution  into  the 
search.  A  secretary  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  having  visited  many  army  camps,  af- 
firms that  the  hymn  most  frequently  called  for  is 
Oh  Where  Is  My  Wandering  Boy  Tonight.  His 
value  might  be  discredited  by  his  conduct,  but  the 
love  of  his  mother  still  says,  "Go  search  for  him 
where  you  will,  but  bring  him  to  me.  Tell  him  I 
love  him  still."  There  is  not  in  this  favorite  hymn 
a  single  line  that  suggests  that  the  boy  is  likely, 
or  well-educated,  or  talented,  on  the  contrary  the 
implication  runs  the  other  way.  But  this  only  in- 
flames the  mother  heart  to  do  her  part  with  greater 
faithfulness  and  more  painstaking. 

A  lost  boy  first  suggests  preventive  measures, 
and  then  suggests  the  use  of  specific  means  looking 
to  recovery.  When  a  very  little  boy  was  lost  in  a  wide 
wheat  field,  and  had  tired  himself  out  and  had  sunk 
down  in  weariness  and  heavy  sleep,  the  men  who  were 

[94] 


BOY  LOST 

searching  could  not  seem  to  locate  him  by  an  indi- 
vidual canvass,  and  so  they  took  hold  of  hands, 
which  were  extended,  and  went  over  the  ground 
until  they  found  him.  The  co-operation  gave  thor- 
oughness and  quicker  result.  It  depended  less  on 
chance.  The  cairn  of  Lizzie  Bourne  on  the  spot 
where  she  perished  is  not  remote  from  .the  door  of 
the  old  Tip  Top  House  on  Mount  Washington.  Bun- 
yan  makes  much  of  the  fact  that  a  pilgrim  can  be 
lost  not  remote  from  the  haven  where  he  would  be. 
Joseph  and  Mary  fell  into  the  error  of  going  on  for 
a  full  day,  supposing  that  the  lost  boy  of  our  text 
was  in  the  company.  I  know  the  agony  of  coming 
to  a  standstill  in  a  position  of  extreme  peril 
with  the  sorrowful  words  upon  my  lips, 

I'm  lost. 

It  was  on  a  glacier.  I  had  read  of  Agassiz's  dis- 
coveries in  the  locality.  I  was  full  of  wonder.  I 
kept  leaving  my  guide.  He  would  call  to  me.  Soon 
his  voice  died  away.  I  turned  often  to  avoid  a  crev- 
asse here  and  another  at  a  different  angle  there.  One 
direction  now  seemed  as  good  as  another.  I'm  lost. 
It  has  been  a  terror  in  my  dreams  ever  since.  Un- 
speakably I  felt  the  need  of  a  guide.  It  is  not  in 
man  that  walketh  to  direct  his  steps.  "My  father, 
Thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth."  "Therefore  for 
Thy  name's  sake  lead  me  and  guide  me."  A  shiver 
of  subdued  consternation  ran  over  a  multitudinous 
assembly,  which  crowded  a  great  tent  and  hung  as 
a  deep  fringe  on  all  its  borders  when  it  was  an- 

[95] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

nounced  that  a  young  child  felt  lost,  and  was  in 
sorrow  and  alarm  at  her  situation,  and  if  there  was 
any  friend  of  the  child  present  a  meeting  could  be 
arranged  at  the  right  of  the  platform.  And  when, 
in  response,  a  lady  arose  and  hurriedly  started,  the 
audience  broke  out  into  the  most  rapturous  and 
tumultuous  applause.  The  saddest  thing  imagin- 
able is  a  lost  child.  The  gladdest  thing  is  a  child 
found.  This  is  the  joy  of  Heaven. 

0  great  heart  of  God !  whose  loving 

Cannot  hindered  be,  nor  crossed; 
Will  not  weary,  will  not  even 

In  our  death  itself  be  lost — 
Love  divine!  of  such  great  loving, 

Only  mothers  know  the  cost — 
Cost  of  love,  which,  all  love  passing, 

Gave  a  Son  to  save  the  lost. 


[96] 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  FIRST  WHO  CHEERED 
Immediately  received  strength.    Acts  3 :  7. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  God 
has  done  a  great  deal  for  Milford,  New  Hampshire, 
and  the  newspapers  are  now  pointing  out  that 
man  has  also  done  a  great  deal  for  her  by  what  the 
publications  call,  The  Milford  Spirit.  We  find  by 
correspondence  that  an  organization  exists  com- 
posed of  prominent  men,  which  has  breathed  into 
the  varied  business  enterprises  the  breath  of  life. 
"We  had  a  young  man  about  to  graduate  at  Dart- 
mouth. He  was  going  to  study  Forestry  and  go 
West."  And  this  was  the  style  of  approach,  "My 
boy,  yours  is  a  family  which  has  been  physicians  for 
generations.  What  a  record  you  have  back  of  you, 
what  traditions  to  keep  up.  Your  father  needs  you, 
the  town  wants  to  have  you  come  and  help  him 
carry  on  the  work  and  succeed  to  it."  The  young 
man  is  in  the  Harvard  Medical  School.  He  is  com- 
ing back.  There  is  an  important  industry  in  the 
town  whose  existence  depends  upon  a  single  life. 
The  owner  is  the  only  man  who  understands  it.  His 
son  was  studying  finance,  and  had  graduated  in  the 
regular  course.  This  statement  was  put  up  to  him. 

[97] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

"One  hundred  families  depend  for  their  livelihood 
upon  your  father's  factory.  He  needs  some  one  to 
help  him.  We  don't  want  you  to  go  off  to  some  town 
in  the  West  or  South.  We  want  you  to  come  back 
and  be  an  understudy  to  your  father,  to  hold  up  his 
hands  and  in  time  to  run  the  factory."  This  organ- 
ization, in  the  words  of  the  text,  took  him  by  the 
hand  and  lifted  him  up,  and  he  immediately  re- 
ceived strength. 

The  boy  is  there  in  the  factory. 
The  Milford  spirit  makes  a  young  fellow  feel  like  try- 
ing. When  a  person  watches  how  it  works  it  almost 
makes  him  believe  in  the  old-fashioned  doctrine  of 
transmigration,  perhaps  we  would  better  say,  the 
transfusion  of  souls,  by  which  is  meant  here  the 
passing  of  the  soul  of  a  far-seeing,  large-hearted  man 
into  an  untested,  inexperienced  youngster,  whose  life 
is  all  before  him,  and  who  stands  wondering  at  the 
parting  of  the  ways. 

"Johns,  would  thee  like  to  go  into  business  for 
thyself?"  Johns  is  an  early  form  of  the  word  Jones. 
This  question  was  raised  by  Gerard  Hopkins,  the 
Quaker  uncle  of  Johns  Hopkins,  to  whom  it  was  ad- 
dressed. *  *  Yes,  but,  uncle,  I  have  saved  only  $800. ' ' 
And  he  had  worked  hard  for  seven  years  to  acquire 
it.  "But  that  will  make  no  difference.  I  will  en- 
dorse for  thee  and  this  will  give  thee  credit  and  in 
a  short  time  thee  will  make  a  capital.  Thee  has 
been  faithful  to  my  interests.  I  will  start  thee  in 
business. ' '  Johns  Hopkins,  thus  cheered,  immediately 

[98] 


THE  FIRST  WHO  CHEERED 

received  strength.  He  labored  untiringly  early  and 
late.  His  business  grew  and  extended  into  other 
states.  His  parents,  only  rich  in  their  family  of 
eleven  children,  were  visited  by  Gerard,  who  pro- 
posed that  Johns,  the  eldest,  who  worked  as  a  boy 
on  the  farm,  should  go  to  Baltimore  and  learn  the 
wholesale  grocery  business.  It  seemed  a  voice  from 
another  world.  When,  having  amassed,  at  nearly 
eighty  years  of  age,  seven  millions  dollars,  to  found 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University  and  Hospital,  he  said 
to  his  cousin,  "If  not  for  him,"  meaning  his  Uncle 
Gerard,  "I  would  in  all  probability  have  remained 
a  boy  on  the  farm."  The  picture  of  Johns  Hopkins 
hung  in  the  office  of  a  Baltimore  firm  who  were 
asked,  What  was  Johns  Hopkins  to  you?  And  this 
was  the  reply,  One  day  he  came,  and  looking  around 
said,  Why  don't  you  do  a  larger  business?  You  are 
prompt,  you  ought  to  get  on.  They  told  him  can- 
didly how  things  were  with  them,  and  he  drew  a 
check  for  $10,000  on  the  spot  and  told  them  not  to 
hurry  about  paying  it. 

"From  that  day  we  prospered." 
When  Richard  Knill  visited  Spurgeon's  father  he 
was  very  much  drawn  to  the  small  boy  Thomas, 
aged  ten,  and  drew  the  little  friendly  fellow  into 
a  walk  with  him  in  the  garden  where  he,  in  easy 
words,  conversed  with  him  and  prayed  with  him 
and  said  that  this  child  will  one  day  preach  the 
gospel  to  thousands.  The  boy  immediately  received 
strength.  He  had  a  rebirth  of  expectation  and  re- 

[99] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

solve.  A  prophecy  like  that  goes  far  toward  its  own 
fulfilment.  So  was  it  with  the  sad-voiced,  disap- 
pointed, dejected  minister  who  had  preached  in 
vacant  pulpits,  on  occasion,  as  supply  for  many 
years,  as  pictured  by  Mr.  Crockett,  until  he  received 
the  stimulus  of  an  encouraging  word  from  a  good 
Scotch  elder  named  William  Greig,  when  he  pulled 
himself  together  on  the  following  Sunday,  and 
preached  so  stormily  that  he  took  the  congregation 
by  assault,  and  got  a  unanimous  call  on  the  spot, 
When  Darwin  received  a  word  of  praise  from  Sir 
John  Mclntire,  he  says,  it  made  a  new  being  of  him. 
His  latent  faculties  were  then  called  up.  This  talent 
of  evoking  the  best  in  another  is  in  its  way  a  kind 
of  genius.  Dr.  Stillman  of  the  First  Church,  Boston, 
had  a  delicate  frame  and  was  much  depressed  after 
what  he  felt  was  a  poor  sermon.  He  could  not  eat 
his  dinner  and  went  sick  to  bed.  "Jephthah,"  he 
said,  calling  his  colored  servant,  "tell  the  deacons 
that  they  must  get  somebody  to  supply  the  pulpit." 
"I  feel  bad  for  the  people,"  said  the  servant,  "They 
will  be  disappointed.  Folks  is  queer  but  they  don't 
want  to  hear  anybody  else.  I  hearn  Mrs.  Smith  say 
this  mornin'  what  a  beautiful  sermon  the  doctor 
preached.  But  I'll  tell  the  deacons  Massa  Stillman 
is  wearin'  hisself  out."  "You  needn't  go.  I  feel  bet- 
ter. Brush  my  boots  Jephthah,  and  I'll  try  to  preach 
myself."  Those  who  resist  hardest  the  truth  we  are 
seeking  to  enforce  do  it  with  the  feeling  that  men 
like  Spurgeon  and  Darwin  do  not  need  to  be  called 

[100] 


THE  FIRST  WHO  C&E&RED: :'  Oi^  :'"• 

up  and  reinforced.  If  you  please,  for  a  moment 
pass  from  a  consideration  of  the  need  of  such  a  sum- 
mons to  a  notice  of  its  effects.  Old  Dr.  Samuel  John- 
son, gruff,  self-centered,  and  independent,  would 
seem  most  likely  to  be  indifferent  to  an  early  word 
of  cheer, 

Tet  down  to  gray  hairs 

he  kept  telling  of  the  pleasure  and  uplift  that  came 
into  his  life  when  his  old  school  mistress  came  to  bid 
him  farewell  and  brought  him  an  extremely  common- 
place present,  and  told  him  he  was  the  best  scholar  she 
ever  had.  With  his  great  powers  of  mind  he  began  to 
reason  that  a  boy  might  be  the  man  in  miniature.  When 
Christopher  Gore,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Massachu- 
setts, afterward  governor  of  the  state  and  United 
States  Senator,  had  settled  down  to  practice  his 
profession,  an  awkward  fledgling  undertook  the  task 
of  an  introduction  of  himself  and  spoke  of  his  em- 
barrassment as  he  briefly,  but  frankly,  explained 
his  circumstances  and  spoke  of  his  wishes  and  am- 
bitions, and  offered  to  send  to  New  Hampshire  for 
letters  to  conform  his  statement.  The  great  lawyer 
heard  him  through,  took  him  at  his  word,  and  en- 
gaged him  on  the  spot.  Before  leaving  Mr.  Gore's 
employment  the  young  law  student  was  tendered 
the  office  of  clerk  of  courts,  with  a  good  salary,  which 
he  needed.  But  his  patron  set  his  face  steadily  against 
his  accepting  it,  and  openly  prophesied  for  him  em- 
inence at  the  bar  in  a  direct  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession. This  kindly  prophecy  changed  the  whole 

[101] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

face  of  things.  Webster  told  his  father  what  Mr. 
Gore  had  said,  which  was  the  lever  that  turned  the 
switch  at  that  junction.  The  Dartmouth  College 
Case,  The  Girard  Will  Case,  and  the  Suicide  Is  Con- 
fession Case,  argued  in  Salem,  the  greatest  address 
ever  made  to  any  jury,  go  to  plainly  show  that  Mr. 
Gore's  prophecy  was  fulfilled.  A  new  standard  had 
been  set  up,  new  forces  called  into  action.  They 
stimulate  the  will,  with  the  result  that  a  man  does 
not  sit  down  trusting  to  fate  to  work  out  his  prob- 
lems for  him.  He  goes  to  work  all  the  more  diligently 
and  vigorously,  resolving  that  if,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
best  authority,  a  thing  can  be,  it  shall  be  accom- 
plished. If  it  were  true  that  the  first  who  cheered 
rendered  no  particular  office,  why  is  it  uniformly 
that  when  men  have  attained  elevated  position,  they 
appear  to  feel  under  a  sort  of  obligation  to  make 
public  acknowledgment  to  those  who  gave  them  a 
perpendicular  lift  at  just  the  right  time? 

In  the  executive  office  at  Washington  a  number 
of  gentlemen  being  present,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  Mr. 
Seward  who  bought  Alaska,  which  is  proving  itself 
a  bonanza,  at  two  cents  an  acre,  "You  never  heard 
how  I  earned  my  first  dollar,  did  you? 

I  was  eighteen. 

I  got  the  consent  of  my  mother  to  construct  a  little 
flat  boat.  With  the  spring  floods,  the  river  rises, 
and  later  subsides  so  that  the  landing  place  is  not 
at  the  same  stage  at  the  different  tides.  A  steamer 
coming  down  the  river  would  stop  in  midstream, 

[102] 


THE  FIRST  WHO   CHEERED 

and  passengers  would  go  on  board  by  means  of 
boats  putting  out  from  shore.  Two  men  came  in 
carriages  and,  'Will  you  take  us  and  our  trunks 
out  to  the  steamer?'  I  said,  ' Certainly. '  I  was  glad 
to  have  the  opportuntiy  of  earning  something.  I 
sculled  them  out  to  the  boat.  I  lifted  their  heavy 
trunks  and  put  them  on  deck.  Each  of  them  took 
from  his  pocket  a  silver  half  dollar  and  threw  it 
on  the  floor  of  the  boat.  I  could  scarcely  believe  my 
eyes  as  I  picked  up  the  money.  Gentlemen,  you  may 
think  it  a  very  little  thing,  and  in  these  days  it  seems 
to  me  like  a  trifle;  but  it  was  a  most  important 
incident  in  my  life.  I  could  scarcely  credit  that  I, 
a  poor  boy,  had  earned  a  dollar."  This  testimony 
is  taken  here  for  the  sake  of  the  next  two  sentences. 
Listen,  "The  world  seemed  wider  and  fairer  before 
me.  I  was  a  more  hopeful  and  confident  being  from 
that  time."  This  stands  to  the  credit  of  the  first 
who  cheered.  For  the  author  of  the  proclamation  of 
emancipation  and  the  dedicatory  speech  at  Gettys- 
burg to  say,  "The  world  seemed  wider  and  fairer 
before  me,  I  was  a  more  hopeful  and  confident  being 
from  that  time/'  who  would  not  rejoice  extravagantly 
to  have  ministered  that  cheer  and  joy  to  that  super- 
man. The  reason  that  the  words  and  deeds  of  the 
first  who  cheer  prove  so  effective  is  that  the  recipient 
stands  at  the  point,  where  we  all  stood  when  we  felt 
so  deeply  a  slight,  if  the  social  favorites  in  the  com- 
munity gave  a  party  and  passed  us  by  unnoticed. 

[103] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

We  wonder  that  we  had  any  feeling  in  a  matter  that 
has  grown  into  such  profound  indifference,  but 

We  did  feel  it  keenly. 

We  had  not  then  established  ourselves;  we  had  not 
been  given  our  rating.  Hear  Robert  Fulton,  the 
builder  of  the  Clermont,  the  first  steamboat  on  the 
Hudson,  mourn.  We  wonder  that  he  cared,  but  the 
fact  that  people  do  so  deeply  care  gives  the  point 
to  all  we  say.  The  crowd  jeered  and  mocked,  and 
Mr.  Fulton  says,  "I  never  received  a  single  encour- 
aging remark,  a  bright  hope,  or  a  warm  wish  across 
my  path."  "The  dog,"  it  has  been  said,  "cares  not 
for  the  approval  of  his  fellow  dogs  who  are  his  equals, 
but  much  for  that  of  man,  who  is  his  superior." 
When  we  were  wondering  how  things  were  going  to 
go  with  us,  every  word  and  act  were  weighed.  We 
were  looking  at  every  slight  indication. 

Any  sharp  cut  went  to  the  quick. 
Anything  that  looked  like  recognition  and  a  fine 
future  went  to  the  heart.  It  was  taken  at  its  face 
value.  It  established  our  identity.  It  marked  the 
elevation  to  which  the  tide  might  rise.  We  set  out  to 
deserve  our  rating,  and  not  to  disappoint  the  expec- 
tation of  our  friends. 

For  the  Mechanics'  Hall  in  Boston  seven  thou- 
sand tickets  had  been  sold  in  advance,  and  not  a  seat 
on  floor  or  in  galleries  and  not  an  inch  of  standing 
room  remained  unoccupied  in  the  aisles,  up  to  the 
orchestra  rails.  Just  after  a  solo  by  Mrs.  Barry,  a  lit- 
tle spark  of  fire  was  seen  upon  the  red  cloth  side  of  the 

[104] 


THE  FIRST  WHO   CHEERED 

proscenium.  Several  men  jumped  up  excitedly,  and 
pointed  to  the  little  glimmer.  In  an  instant  the  at- 
tention of  the  whole  vast  audience  was  centered 
upon  that  one  spot.  Even  as  they  looked  the  little 
flame  glided  up  the  side,  creeping  with  startling 
rapidity  along  the  edge  of  the  fabric.  As  the  au- 
dience viewed  the  scene  with  subdued  terror,  a  lithe 
form  was  noticed  approaching.  It  was  substitute 
Victor,  of  Engine  22,  who  with  a  companion  was  on 
duty  in  the  hall.  He  hesitated  for  a  moment.  But 
men  cheered  and  ladies  joined  with  them,  while 
handkerchiefs  and  hats  were  waved  in  all  parts  of 
the  great  building.  Hestitancy  instantly  vanished. 
Quickly  climbing  up  the  slender  frame-work,  hand 
over  hand,  and  swinging  from  cross-bar  to  cross-bar, 
he  seized  the  cloth,  and,  tearing  it  loose,  dropped  it 
down  where  it  was  grasped  by  others  and  the  blaze 
extinguished.  Electrified  by  applause  he  rose  above 
himself  and  became  a  hero.  With  the  sympathetic 
support  of  a  myriad  of  souls  he  seemed  to  use  a 
strength  beyond  his  own.  Having  received  such 
cheer,  a  man  cannot  turn  back. 


[105] 


CHAPTER  XII 

FARES,  PLEASE 

So  he  paid  the  fare  thereof.    Jonah  1:3. 

A  man's  pocketbook  is  his  best  friend  on  Borne 
journeys.  He  is  kept  reaching  for  it  the  most  of  the 
time.  If  a  man  does  not  pay  his  fare  the  car  is 
stopped  to  give  him  opportunity,  with  or  without 
assistance,  to  alight.  The  conductor  always  Beems 
to  want  something.  "  Fares,  please. "  On  the  first 
and  second  class  cars  abroad  the  greeting  used  to 
be,  " Tickets  please/'  But  on  the  third  class  car  it 
was  simply,  "Tickets."  There  was  a  difference  in 
politeness,  but  none  in  the  uniformity  of  making 
some  kind  of  collection.  In  the  museums  it  is  com- 
mon to  exhibit  the  coins  that  have  been  taken  from 
the  cerements  of  people  decently  buried  which  were 
provided  to  pay  to  the  ferryman  who  should  set  the 
traveler  across  the  cold  and  rapid  river  that  it  was 
believed  all  pilgrims  must  pass.  It  was  natural  to 
infer  that  there  would  be  a  fare  to  pay  if  the  future 
is  judged  by  the  past.  In  many  of  the  hotels  abroad, 
if  a  guest  desires  a  light  cr  warmth  in  his  room  it  is 
furnished  at  an  itemized  price.  A  hotel  is  not  a 
charitable  institution  like  an  endowed  hospital. 
It  is  conducted  for  revenue  only.  You  become  a 

[106] 


FARES,  PLEASE 

guest  and  later  comes  the  reckoning.  We  sometimes 
hear  of  free  schools,  and  of  free  seats  in  churches. 
There  are  none.  The  moment  a  janitor  is  employed 
a  bill  is  running  up  that  will  certainly  be  presented, 
which  each  person  benefited  may  himself  pay,  or 
some  substitute  must  be  found  who  will  pay  it  for 
him.  Anyway  there  must  be  a  settlement. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  a  mother,  leading  a  small 
boy,  attempt  to  get  him  by  an  engine  that  has 
steam  up,  which  is  blowing  off.  She  tugs  and  pulls 
and  calls.  There  is  a  peculiar  fascination  about  an 
engine,  and  a  steamboat,  and  the  cars,  for  a  boy. 
Assuming  that  he  is  intelligent  and  apt  and  quick, 
suppose  he  should  say,  Mr.  Engineer,  I  see  how 
you  work  those  levers.  Let  me  take  your  place, 
please.  With  what  rapidity  the  cars  would  be  emp- 
tied if  the  request  were  to  be  granted.  No  matter 
about  your  fondness  for  mechanics,  no  matter  who 
your  father  is,  no  matter  about  your  mind's  bright- 
ness, you  must  have  experience,  and  experience  must 
be  paid  for.  Fares  please.  Is  the  position  worth 
having?  Then  it  is  worth  paying  for. 

Lay  down  the  price  and  take  it* 
You  ought  not  to  expect  something  for  nothing.  No 
paper  currency,  no  promises-to-pay  will  do.  We  must 
have  the  gold  of  real  service.  Work  is  the  price.  He 
that  reapeth  receiveth  wages.  A  real  vacation  can 
only  be  earned  by  labor.  We  must  pay  the  fare. 
That  night's  slumber  is  best,  that  has  been  earned, 

[107] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

"Toiling,  rejoicing,  sorrowing, 

Onward  through  life  he  goes; 
Each  morning  sees  some  task  begun, 

Each  evening  sees  its  close. 
Something  attempted,  something  done, 

Has  earned  a  night's  repose." 

Girls  do  not  take  to  locomotives,  but  they  do  want 
to  have  a  piano  either  in  the  home  they  have,  or  in 
the  home  they  dream  they  are  to  have.  Getting  a 
piano  is  the  smallest  part  of  the  production  of  music. 
No  matter  how  well  your  sister  can  play,  no  matter 
how  many  good  music  teachers  you  can  secure,  be- 
fore you  personally  become  a  pianist,  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions,  you  must  pay  a  fixed  price  in 
diligence  and  self-discipline,  with  no  substitutes, 
and  no  absent  treatment.  You  cease  paying  the  fare 
and  all  advancement  stops  short.  In  this  and  in 
kindred  lines  of  glorious  art,  the  gods  sell  profi- 
ciency at  the  price  of  great  labor.  The  outstanding 
feature  of  a  memorable  lecture  on  The  Last  Supper 
was  the  variety  and  particularly  the  vast  number  of 
tentative  sketches  and  studies  that  the  artist  had 
made  before  he  reached  his  climax  in  expression. 
The  lecturer  kept  indicating  the  world's  great  good 
fortune  that  the  first  attempts  to  realize  the  artists 
ideals  were  not  used,  as  they  were  so  inferior  and 
deficient  in  quality.  As  objects  of  curiosity,  in  the 
art  centers  of  Europe,  one  artist  alone  having  left 
twenty-five  hundred  preliminary  drawings  and  car- 
toons, we  have  painful  evidence  that  the  great  mas- 

[108] 


FARES,  PLEASE 

ters  passed  through  long  processes  of  careful  train- 
ing that  the  eye  and  hand  should  be  thoroughly 
educated  for  their  work. 

80  they  paid  the  fare  thereof. 
The  celebrated  poet,  Goethe,  tells  us  he  had  noth- 
ing sent  to  him  in  his  sleep  and  once  remarked  to 
his  friend,  Eckerman,  "Each  clever  saying  has  cost 
me  a  purse  of  gold.  Half  a  million  of  my  own  money, 
the  fortune  I  inherited,  my  salary,  and  the  large  in- 
come I  have  derived  from  my  writings  have  been 
expended  to  instruct  me, "  so  he  paid  the  fare  thereof. 
Men  overlook  the  stupendous  price  at  which  every 
good  thing  must  come.  It  costs  suffering  and  toil 
and  thought,  even  heroism  and  martyrdom,  while  it 
is  deemed  to  have  been  obtained  without  much  ex- 
penditure. Its  price  must  be  paid,  and  quality  comes 
high.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  it  is  said,  never  painted 
a  likeness  without  drawing  a  picture  also.  He  la- 
bored by  the  aid  of  accessories  to  heighten  the  effect 
of  the  art,  and  by  great  painstaking,  to  place  his 
sitters  in  the  best  light.  When  Milton  resolved  to 
write  something  "which  men  should  not  willingly 
let  die/'  he  knew  what  it  would  cost  him.  It  was 
to  be  "by  labor  and  intent  study,  which  I  take  to 
be  my  portion  in  this  life. ' '  When  Mr.  Dickens  wrote 
one  of  his  Christmas  Books,  he  shut  himself  up  for 
six  weeks  to  do  it;  he  "put  his  whole  heart  into  it." 
and  came  out  again  looking  as  haggard  as  a  mur- 
derer. Dante  saw  himself  growing  leaner  over  his 
Divine  Comedy.  So  he  paid  the  fare.  All  men  every- 

[109] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

where  agree  to  honor  the  most  useful  man  of  the 
twentieth  century,  not  only  the  greatest  inventor 
of  his  age,  but  a  discoverer  as  well.  For  two  days  and 
nights  and  twelve  hours,  sixty  hours  in  all,  Edison 
worked  continuously  without  sleep  until  he  had 
conquered  a  difficulty.  He  is  said  to  have  tried  two 
thousand  substances  before  fixing  upon  the  fibers 
of  bamboo  for  the  arch  in  the  vacuum  of  his  glass 
globe.  For  ten  years  together  he  has  worked 
eighteen  hours  a  day.  So  he  paid  the  fare  thereof. 
He  often  works  all  night  and  thinks  best,  he  says, 
when  the  rest  of  the  world  sleeps.  Christ  taught 
the  Woman  of  Samaria  though  he  was  weary.  As 
James  Montgomery  says,  "  Night  is  the  time  for 
toil."  That  President  who  is  believed  by  many  to 
have  been  the  best  prepared  for  his  high  office,  in 
his  student  life,  looked  across  the  college  campus  and 
saw  all  the  windows  darkened  except  one.  It  marked 
the  room  of  his  only  competitor.  Night  after  night, 
it  made  this  plain  statement.  If  you  expect  to  take 
the  college  honors  it  will  be  on  the  basis  of  more 
than  the  forty-four  hours  of  toil  a  week  which  is 
the  maximum  amount  required  from  a  laboring  man. 
He  saw  where  the  matter  hinged.  He  cheerfully 
gave  the  extra  labor  and  paid  the  fare. 

Soon  after  the  late  Horace  Maynard,  congressman, 
postmaster-general,  diplomatist,  entered  Amherst 
College  he  put  over  the  door  of  his  room 

A  large  letter  V, 
and    engaged    in    study   with    great    devotion.      At 

[110] 


FARES,  PLEASE 

the  end  of  four  years,  graduation  day  came,  and 
Mr.  Maynard  was  appointed  to  deliver  the  valedic- 
tory. After  having  received  the  compliments  of  the 
faculty  and  students  for  the  honor  he  had  received, 
Mr.  Maynard  called  the  attention  of  his  fellow-grad- 
uates to  the  letter  V  standing  for  valedictory,  over 
the  door  of  his  room.  In  Cleveland's  Compendium, 
English  Literature  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,*  an  as- 
terisk is  attached  to  the  line,  Night  is  the  time  for  toil, 
referring  the  reader  to  a  footnote  in  the  book  that 
would  be  amusing  if  it  were  not  so  piteous.  The 
author  seems  to  feel  that  if  he  could  have  had  a  word 
with  Montgomery  he  would  not  have  framed  that 
verse.  He  suggests  study  by  day  and  not  by  night. 
Guess  he  never  had  a  book  he  sat  up  nights  with. 
Could  Napoleon,  when  studying  his  maps,  or  Julius 
Caesar  when  forming  the  plans  for  his  campaign, 
or  Stonewall  Jackson  when  executing  his  far-famed 
flank  movements  or  victorious  surprise  attacks,  have 
seen  the  footnote  of  the  easy-going  compiler  of 
poems,  he  would  have  laughed  in  the  author's  face. 
Our  excellent  compiler  did  not  rise  quite  high  enough 
to  get  a  sidewise  look  at  men  with  tasks. 

Life  has  its  moments  and  its  prizes. 
Either  the  sun  must  stand  still  or  the  work  must  go  on 
after  that  goes  down.  The  forty-four  hours  a  week  that 
mechanics  use  will  not  do  to  meet  their  need.  A  stu- 
dent for  the  ministry  was  lately  found  living  on  a  few 
cents  a  day,  and  studying  like  Jonathan  Edwards 

*  Page  597. 

[ill] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

''thirteen  hours  a  day/'  thus  enduring  hardship  that 
he  might  obtain  the  prize  upon  which  his  heart  was 
set.  So  he  paid  the  price  thereof.  When  Bernard  of  the 
Tuileries,  as  he  came  to  be  called,  destined  to  re- 
ceive the  patronage  of  kings  and  emperors,  to  write 
books,  to  open  a  school  of  philosophy,  drew  forth  his 
five  hundred  cups  and  saucers,  his  bowls  and  pit- 
chers and  beautiful  vases,  bright  and  shining  like  a 
mirror,  from  his  fiery  furnace,  it  seems  inappropriate 
for  him  to  have  carried  the  bricks  to  build  his  ovens 
on  his  back.  It  would  have  been,  to  use  the  word  of 
the  compiler  of  poetry,  a  "better  economy "  to  em- 
ploy an  expressman.  But  he  had  no  money  to  pay 
the  freight.  So  he  paid  the  fare  thereof  in  drudgery. 
It  is  an  unspeakable  price  which  humanity  pays  for 
the  prize  of  goodness  or  righteousness,  or  even  simple 
honesty.  Everything  costs  something.  The  com- 
monest form  of  dishonesty  is  a  dignified  attempt  to 
get  something  for  nothing.  Pretention  never  wrote 
an  Iliad,  nor  drove  back  the  Germans  on  the  Marne. 
Above  all  Greek,  above  all  common  fame  is  the 
transcendent  title  of  our  war  President,  Honest  Abe. 
It  is  no  accidental  designation. 

He  earned  it. 

He  paid  the  fare  thereof.  His  biographers  show  his 
scrupulous,  laborious,  painstaking  to  be  just  in  his 
accounts  while  keeping  postoflice.  Closing  his  little 
grocery  early,  he  went  on  foot,  at  night,  to  rectify  cer- 
tain little  errors  in  the  business  of  the  day.  As  a  law- 
yer he  always  tried  a  case  fairly  and  honestly,  met  the 

[112] 


FARES,  PLEASE 

facts  squarely.  He  never  misrepresented  the  evi- 
dence. A  part  of  the  price  he  paid  for  the  title  that 
can  never  be  taken  away  from  him  was  two  days' 
work  " pulling  fodder"  for  his  teacher,  Mr.  Craw- 
ford, from  whom  he  borrowed  Ramsay's  life  of 
Washington.  Through  the  chinks  between  the  logs 
of  the  cabin  the  rain  drove  in  at  night  and  ruined 
the  book.  As  he  had  no  money,  he  faced  the  con- 
ditions, put  himself  wholly  at  Mr.  Crawford's  dis- 
posal, having  agreed  to  work  until  the  owner  of  the 
book  said  he  was  satisfied.  He  realized  in  practice 
the  early  wish  of  his  mother,  who  said  she  would 
rather  he  would  learn  to  read  the  Bible  than  own  a 
farm. 

To  secure  the  rights  of  the  little  nations,  we 
must  pay  the  price.  Out  of  this  fiery  upheaval  there 
will  come  a  new  Heaven  and  a  new  earth.  It  is  ours 
to  pay  the  fare  thereof.  The  conditions  exacted  a 
terrible  toll.  Nothing  was  given. 

All  things  were  Sold. 

Nothing  for  nothing  has  been  the  rule.  The  lives 
of  martyrs  have  a  purchasing  power.  They  are 
counters.  Like  shillings  and  guineas,  they  are  given 
in  exchange.  They  are  valuable  for  what  they 
will  buy.  Our  Saviour's  death!  Its  value  is  in  its 
purchasing  power.  We  are  bought  with  its  price. 
His  sepulchre  counts  but  one  among  all  the  broken 
tombs  of  earth.  In  a  better  view,  however,  his 
death  discriminates  his  grave  from  all  others  in 
what  it  achieved  He  gave  his  life,  a  ransom  for 

[113] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

many.  Sacrifices  are  the  seeds  of  good  things.  When 
our  sympathies  go  out  to  the  soldiers  under  "Wash- 
ington at  Valley  Forge  the  touching  lesson  is  taught 
us  that  every  advancement  made  by  our  nation  was 
preceded  by  somebody's  self  denial.  So  they  paid 
the  fare  thereof.  All  the  acres  of  windowless  homes 
at  the  national  cemetery  at  Arlington,  having  among 
the  15,000  graves  2,110  of  the  unknown  dead, 
gathered  from  the  battlefields  of  the  Wilderness, 
the  Potomac,  and  the  Rappahannock,  exhibit  the 
cost  of  the  Union.  "Without  shedding  of  blood  there 
is  no  —  no  anything."  We  must  not  forget  that 
the  words  bless,  bloom,  blossom  and  blood  are  all 
from  the  same  root !  Burial  Hill  at  Plymouth,  com- 
ing next  to  the  tomb  at  Mt.  Vernon  in  veneration, 
has  never  been  surpassed  in  reverent  interest  and 
attachment  since  the  sepulchre  in  Joseph's  garden 
was  hewn  and  occupied  and  sealed  by  a  stone.  It 
indicates  that  he  that  goeth  forth  and  bearing  pre- 
cious seed  shall  come  bringing  sheaves,  but  they 
will  be  paid  for  with  tears.  No  weeping,  no  reaping. 

"And  they  who  found  in  our  land 

The  power  that  rules  from  sea  to  sea, 

Bled  they  in  vain,  or  vainly  planned, 
To  leave  their  country  great  and  free? 

Their  sleeping  ashes  from  below 
Send  up  the  thrilling  murmur,  No !" 

All  noble  things  are  hard  to  do.  Every  heroic  act 
has  its  price.  The  fare  must  be  paid.  If  a  man 
gives  himself  to  attain  success  in  business  he  must 

[114] 


FARES,  PLEASE 

give  up  ease  and  leisure,  and  cheerfully  pay  the  fare. 
The  mother  who,  having  lost  her  way  during  a 
heavy  snow  storm  and  knowing  that  she  or  her  babe 
must  perish,  wrapped  the  apparel  carefully  around 
her  child  and  heroically  dared  to  die  that  the  child 
might  live.  The  fare  was  high,  but  she  paid  it.  The 
gift  that  costs  us  nothing  does  us  and  others  the 
least  good.  St.  Paul  tells  us  that  the  Macedonian 
brethren  first  gave  their  own  selves  unto  the  Lord. 
They  wanted  to  make  an  outstanding  expression  of 
their  religious  devotion  to  a  divine  cause,  and  so 
paid  the  fare  thereof. 


[115] 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  EVER  PRESENT  BOY 
There  is  a  lad  here.    John  6:  9. 

There  is  a  lad  here.  There  usually  is.  He  is 
able  to  be  about.  I  am  calling  at  a  door  and  am 
imperfectly  understood  by  a  French  family.  There 
is  a  lad  present,  who  is  in  school,  and  speaks  both 
languages.  The  boy  is  like  a  page  on  the  floor  of 
Congress,  waiting  to  be  used. 

Eliphalet  Nott  was  riding  one  day  over  a  coun- 
try road  in  Dutchess  County,  New  York,  and  his 
horse  cast  a  shoe.  It  is  a  lad  that  tells  him  that 
Farmer  Potter  has  a  man  that  can  shoe  a  horse. 
The  gentleman  seeking  a  blacksmith  will  be  best 
remembered  as  the  president  of  Union  College.  He 
preached  a  sermon  when  pastor  of  the  First  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  Albany  on  "the  Fall  of  Hamil- 
ton" in  the  duel  with  Aaron  Burr.  This  discourse 
of  great  eloquence  and  power  contains  the  famous 
passage  indicating  that  in  the  moment  in  which 
the  challenge  was  accepted,  Hamilton  "was  not  at 
his  best.'*  This  famous  address,  so  timely  and  vigor- 
ous, was  the  chief  agency  in  abolishing  dueling.  It 
also  made  its  author  president  of  the  institution  at 
Schenectady,  New  York.  He  continued  in  his  exalted 
office  for  sixty  years.  With  his  leadership  the  college 

[116] 


THE  EVER  PRESENT  BOY 

became  the  largest  in  the  country,  and  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  surpassed  both  Harvard  and  Yale.  As 
the  horseshoeing  proceeds,  a  lad  is  on  hand  who  is 
soon  joined  by  his  brother,  to  witness  the  process. 

Everything  is  new  to  children. 

They  are  learning  the  ways  of  the  world.  President 
Nott  turned  and  asked  Farmer  Potter  what  he  was  go- 
ing to  do  with  the  boys,  suggesting  for  them  a  course 
of  study  at  Union  College.  Accordingly  both  boys, 
Alonzo  and  Horatio  Potter  were  sent  to  this  institu- 
tion and  there  they  graduated  with  high  honors,  the 
one  afterward  becoming  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
other,  the  Bishop  of  New  York.  Alonzo  married  Dr. 
Nott 's  daughter  and  nine  sons  were  born  to  them  ' '  all 
men  of  conscience  and  leadership  who  were  intent,  not 
on  private  gain,  but  on  the  common  good."  Clark- 
son  N.  Potter  was  in  Congress  for  twenty  years. 
Howard  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission  and  incorporator  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  and  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  president  of  the  New 
York  Society  for  Improving  the  Conditions  of  the 
Poor,  and  founder  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Asso- 
ciation. James  became  a  colonel,  Robert,  a  major- 
general,  Edward,  an  architect,  devoted  himself  to 
the  study  of  the  housing  of  the  poor  and  to  planning 
model  tenements.  Henry  became  successor  to  his 
uncle  as  Bishop  of  New  York.  Eliphalet  was  presi- 
dent of  Union  and  Hobart  Colleges  and  William  was 
architect  of  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washing- 

[117] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

ton.  Who  can  measure  the  influence  that  is  turned 
into  noblest  channels  when  President  Nott  has  the 
eye  to  see, 

There  is  a  lad  here, 

also  his  brother?  It  would  do  God's  work  injustice 
not  to  send  such  boys  to  college.  When  they  review 
their  lives  they  observe  that  the  forces  that  enter  into 
the  formation  of  their  characters  consist  of  persons. 
They  do  not  mention  rules  or  maxims,  although  they 
were  not  inattentive  to  them.  Boys  are  wonderfully 
adhesive  to  men  that  seem  big  and  generous  and  ap- 
preciative of  them  and  estimate  them  at  their  best. 
Boys  have  a  strong  prejudice  in  favor  of  out-spoken- 
ness.  They  are  stimulated  by  hopeful  praise.  The 
lad  here  in  the  text  had  his  resources  spoken  of 
with  unlikeliness  and  disparagement,  the  implica- 
tion being  that  nothing  would  come  of  them.  But 
the  Saviour  saw,  in  what  he  had,  the  means  of 
blessing  to  thousands.  The  store  must  have  its 
carrier-boy,  the  regiment  its  boy  drummer,  the  river 
steamer,  its  call  boy,  the  telegraph  office,  its  boy 
messenger.  Boys  are  paid  in  dimes,  and  for  their 
employers  earn  dollars.  They  are  the  little  wheels 
which  make  the  mighty  machine  go  smoothly  and 
steadily.  They  fill  in  the  spaces.  When  anyone 
detects  the  noble  qualities  in  boys,  they  admire  the 
fine  qualities  in  him  and  at  once  there  is  evidence  of 
a  kinship  of  mind  between  them.  In  a  time  of  war 
the  nation  seems  to  reach  right  down  to  take  up 
young  men  for  immediate  use,  not  sparing  the  time 

[118] 


THE  EVER  PRESENT  BOY 

for  their  complete  education  and  preparation.  The 
dominant  spirit  is  military.  The  soldier  is  the  fore- 
most citizen, 

The  man  of  the  hour. 

After  our  Civil  War  our  President  and  Governors 
were  men  developed  on  fields  of  action.  New  tests  have 
brought  out  valor.  The  nation  cannot  buy  the  qualities 
that  make  the  soldier.  The  price,  like  that  of  wisdom, 
is  above  rubies.  Not  in  the  army  alone  are  young  men 
sought  and  advanced,  but  necessarily  in  other  de- 
partments of  life  because  the  country's  wants  seem 
so  immediate  and  urgent.  Look  at  the  call  for  men 
as  the  country  organizes  its  new  possessions,  opening 
up  new  fields  of  opportunity  in  remote  islands.  This 
is  an  inevitable  result  of  revolution. 

It  was  so  in  the  Civil  War. 

Men  who  at  the  moment  are  equipped  do  the  work. 
Duties  devolving  on  young  men  are  growing  greater 
and  more  important  all  the  while. 

The  designation  "Boys  in  Blue,"  was  applied 
to  them  not  because  it  was  poetic  and  alliterative, 
nor  was  it  used  like  a  diminutive  to  voice  tenderness, 
as  when  a  man  tells  us  that  he  has  a  little  wife  at 
home,  although  it  is  the  good  fortune  of  the  ex- 
pression to  carry  the  color  of  both  these  things, 
but  the  expression  prevailed  and  could  never  be  dis- 
placed in  the  speech  of  those  who  saw  the  companies 
of  soldiers  because  it  stood  for  a  salient  fact. 

It  was  an  army  of  boys, 
a  battle  front  of  glowing,  glorious  youth. 

[119] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

Joseph  H.  White  enlisted  in  Company  A,  Second 
N.  H.  Volunteers,  as  a  drummer  boy  at  the  age  of 
nine  years  and  eight  months,  and  was  probably  the 
youngest  soldier  in  the  Union  Army.  J.  P.  Lyon, 
who  enlisted  in  the  81st  Eegiment,  Ohio  Volunteers, 
was  born  in  October,  1850,  and  went  to  war  in  Sep- 
tember, 1861,  so  that  he  was  not  eleven  years  of 
age,  but  only  ten.  He  stood  four  feet,  five  inches 
high.  The  best  authority  on  the  records  of  the  Con- 
federate Army  states  that  Col.  John  H.  Whallen  of 
Louisville  was  the  most  youthful  recruit  on  the 
Southern  side,  being  but  eleven,  but  in  the  Northern 
Army,  there  were  more  than  twenty  boys  whose  ages 
were  eleven.  There  was  a  boy  for  every  uniform. 
Cornelius  H.  Regan  joined  the  19th  Mass.  Inf.  as  a 
member  of  Co.  H  when  he  was  a  little  less  than  thir- 
teen and  so  was  twelve.  In  the  Civil  War  there 
were  one  hundred  boys  who  were  only  twelve.  It 
was  a  boys'  war,  just  as  with  the  Saviour's  blessing, 
the  day,  when  at  one  time  5000  men,  and  at  another 
time  7000  men  besides  women  and  children,  were 
fed,  was  a  boy's  event.  Only  a  mother's  thought- 
fulness  in  sending  him  forth  with  a  little  basket  in 
his  hand,  containing  five  thin  loaves  or  cakes,  and  two 
small  fishes,  for  his  mid-day  luncheon  put  him  in  the 
way  of  giving  all  to  Christ,  receiving  by  the  Lord's 
methods  more  in  this  life,  and  in  the  time  to  come, 
everlasting  remembrance. 

Johnny  Clem  distinguished  himself  in  an  en- 
gagement near  the  Chickamauga  River.  He  was  a 

[120] 


THE  EVEE  PRESENT  BOY 

volunteer  in  the  Twenty-second  Michigan  Regiment 
of  Infantry,  and  was  only  twelve  years  old.  He 
was  serving  as  marker  of  a  regiment  in  a  review  at 
Nashville  when  he  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  Gen- 
eral Rosecrans,  who  made  him  welcome  at  headquar- 
ters. He  performed  faithfully  whatever  duty  was 
imposed  upon  him  while  the  Army  of  the  Cumber- 
land was  approaching  and  crossing  the  Tennessee 
River,  and  in  the  battle  of  Chickamauga  he  won  for 
himself  the  rank  of  sergeant  by  a  deed  of  great 
valor.  He  had  been  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  and 
three  bullets  had  passed  through  his  hat,  when,  sep- 
arated from  his  companions,  he  was  seen  running 
with  a  musket  in  his  hand,  by  a  mounted  Confederate 
colonel,  who  called  out, 

"Stop,  you  little  Yankee!" 

The  boy  halted,  and  brought  his  musket  to  an  order, 
when  the  colonel  rode  up  to  make  him  a  prisoner. 
With  a  swift  motion,  young  Johnny  Clem  brought 
his  gun  up  and  fired,  killing  the  colonel  instantly. 
He  escaped,  and  for  this  heroic  achievement  on  the 
battle-field  was  made  a  sergeant,  put  on  duty  at  the 
headquarters  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  and 
placed  on  the  roll  of  honor  by  General  Rosecrans. 
William  H.  Davis,  Co.  A,  158th  N.  Y.  Volunteers, 
lacked  one  month  of  being  fourteen,  and  so  was 
thirteen  when  he  enlisted  for  three  years,  and  was 
through  with  it  all  by  the  time  he  was  sixteen.  There 
were  seven  hundred  boys  in  the  Union  Army  only 
thirteen  years  of  age.  John  Daley  entered  the  Reg- 

[121] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

ular  Army,  became  a  mounted  orderly  at  fourteen, 
receiving  $13.00  a  month,  drawing  the  same  rations, 
clothing,  allowances,  and  everything  else  to  which 
the  largest  men  in  the  service  are  entitled,  and  there 
were  one  thousand  boys  only  fourteen  in  the  Volun- 
teer Army  of  the  Civil  War.  George  G.  Eussell  of 
Salem  won  distinction  in  the  great  fighting  regi- 
ment the  Third  Maine  Vol.  Inf.  at  fifteen.  There 
were  more  than  two  thousand  boys  in  the  Union 
Army  at  fifteen,  and  now  with  each  year  of  age  the 
number  in  the  army  mounts  right  up  to  the  climax 
when  boys  at  eighteen  outnumber  those  of  any  other 
age  in  the  United  States  Service,  at  the  time  of  the 
Civil  War,  and  there  were  nearly  a  half  million  of 
them,  and  then  the  number  of  soldiers  of  a  given 
age  drops  away  suddenly  and  rapidly  as  you  ad- 
vance the  years. 

Boys  in  Blue 

obtained  their  full  share  of  medals  of  honor  which 
have  the  word  valor  inscribed  on  the  cross-bar. 
Colonel  Roosevelt  was  unable,  as  he  very  much  de- 
sired, to  receive  one  of  these  medals  for  his  charge 
at  San  Juan  Hill.  He  was  told  that  he  simply 
did  his  duty,  while  Medals  of  Honor  call  for  special 
acts  of  valor,  where  a  man,  with  marked  bravery, 
acts  upon  his  own  initiative,  which  means  more  than 
duty-doing,  or  obedience  to  orders.  Orion  P.  Howe, 
Co.  C,  55th  111.  Inf.,  May  19th,  1863,  at  Vicksburg, 
although  severely  wounded  and  exposed  to  a  heavy 
fire,  persistently  remained  upon  the  field  of  battle  un- 

[122] 


THE  EVER  PRESENT  BOY 

til  he  had  reported  to  General  Sherman  the  necessity 
of  supplying  cartridges  for  the  troops  under  Colonel 
Malmberg,  and  he  was  only  fourteen.  Nat  M.  Gwyne 
entered  upon  a  charge  at  Petersburg  July  30th,  1863, 
had  his  arm  crushed  by  a  shell  and  amputated  before 
he  had  been  mustered,  and  was  but  fifteen.  William 
H.  Horesfall,  a  drummer  boy,  Co.  G,  First  Kentucky 
Inf.,  saved  the  life  of  a  wounded  officer  lying  between 
the  lines  of  battle,  and  thus,  like  those  others,  re- 
ceived his  medal  of  honor  for  a  heroic  act  of  his  own 
initiative.  Julius  Langbein,  Co  B,  9th  N.  Y.  Inf.,  whe/n 
he  volunteered  to  go  to  the  aid  of  a  wounded  officer, 
to  rescue  him  from  a  perilous  position  was  but  eleven. 
Benjamin  Levy,  Co.  G,  1st  N.  Y.  Inf.,  a  drummer 
boy,  went  into  battle  at  Glendale,  Virginia,  with  the 
musket  of  a  sick  comrade,  and  saved  the  colors  of 
his  regiment.  William  Magee,  a  drummer  boy  of 
Co.  C,  33rd  N.  J.  Inf.,  in  a  charge  at  Murfreesboro, 
was  among  the  first  to  reach  a  field  battery  of  the 
enemy,  and,  mounting  the  artillery  horses,  brought 
the  guns  into  the  Union  line.  The  vivid  way,  to 
represent  the  possibilities  about  us,  in  the  boys  of 
today,  and  to  see  how  near  the  grammar  school  period 
the  Boys  in  Blue  were,  is  to  select,  one  by  one,  boys 
who  are  now  the  exact  age  that  we  find  the  Boys  in 
Blue  actually  were  then.  And  these  later  boys  are 
a  trifle  more  mature,  as  schools  are  better,  the  flag  is 
very  much  more  in  evidence,  and  effective  measures 
are  now  more  widely  used,  which  develop  a  great  deal 
of  patriotic  feeling.  In  his  last  days,  General  Grant 

[123] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

said  that  boys  now  would  have  a  like  spirit  and  show 
an  equal  devotion.  At  the  dedication  of  soldiers '  mon- 
uments, General  Sheridan  used  to  make  the  point  in 
his  addresses  that 

The  Civil  War  was  fought  by  boys, 
and  not  by  such  grizzled  men  as  are  seen  in  the  Grand 
Army  parades.  Major  Rhea,  Commander  of  the 
Grand  Army,  years  ago,  said  in  St.  Louis  that  it  had 
been  figured  out  that  the  average  age  of  enlisted  men 
at  the  time  they  entered  the  service  was  but  a  very 
small  fraction  over  nineteen  years. 

The  Union  was  saved  ~by  boys. 

We  have,  as  a  result  of  the  Civil  War,  not  only 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  the  emancipation 
of  the  slaves,  but  also  a  knowledge  of  the  power 
and  resources  of  our  nation  as  exhibited  in  a  gen- 
eration of  boys.  Heroism  is  always  modest,  and 
boys  with  almost  every  kind  of  lineage,  the  son  of 
employer  and  the  son  of  employee,  took  the  blue 
clothes  out  of  the  same  box  and  the  petty  distinc- 
tions of  birth  and  class  was  discarded  like  the  cast-off 
raiment.  They  slept  under  the  same  blanket  and 
drank  from  the  same  canteen.  The  uniform,  which 
they  put  on,  as  if  it  were  a  wedding  garment,  was  a 
great  social  equalizer.  There  was  one  regiment  of 
men  of  noticeably  mature  years,  the  thirty-seventh 
Iowa,  called  the  Graybeards  or  the  Silver  Grays,  en- 
listed for  three  years,  but  at  the  end  of  two  years 
finding  themselves  worn  out,  they  petitioned  Presi- 

[124] 


THE  EVER  PRESENT  BOY 

dent  Lincoln  to  be  relieved.    But  these  very  men  had 
1,500  sons  in  the  Union  Army. 

In  1863,  it  was  found  that  one-fifth  of  the  entire 
membership  of  the  Congregational  churches  of  Iowa 
was  in  the  army.  Illinois  had  one-eighth,  Minnesota, 
one-ninth,  whereas  in  Iowa,  one  church  had  two- 
thirds  of  her  male  members  in  the  army,  seven 
churches  had  one-half,  sixteen  churches  had  one-third, 
and  twenty  churches  had  one-fourth.  There  is  usually 
a  larger  proportion  of  boys  in  the  Sunday  School 
than  of  men  in  the  church,  and  as  a  military  com- 
pany was  sometimes  recruited  in  a  single  town,  whole 
Sunday  Schools,  so  far  as  the  older  boys  were  con- 
cerned, emptied  themselves  into  the  army  and 
Entire  classes  were  broken  up. 

The  name  "Boys  in  Blue"  is  instinct  with  unend- 
ing life.  It  is  enshrined  in  the  American  heart.  It 
is  engraven  upon  the  tablets  of  American  history.  It 
shall  never  perish  from  the  earth.  It  describes  them 
as  they  first  appeared  lined  up  for  duty,  and  at  that 
initial  stage  of  service  they  are  embalmed  in  our  na- 
tional recollection.  In  all  languages  the  terms  of 
affection  assume  appearance  of  endearing  littleness. 
Affectionate  diminutives  abound  in  them  all.  As 
he  goes  upon  the  battlefield  a  soldier  speaks  of  his  lit- 
tle darlings.  In  old  English  the  word  was  dearlings, 
but  by  a  change  in  pronunciation  the  word  gains  in 
richness.  In  the  use  of  words  there  is  something  like 
it  in  the  first  picture  that  we  have  of  the  Son  of  God, 
after  His  Ascension,  and  in  connection  with  "signs 

[125] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

and  wonders."  He  is  still  called  the  "Holy  Child 
Jesus,"  as  if  the  words  applied  to  Him.  for  a  fact,  in 
His  radiant  boyhood,  became  stereotyped,  and  in  the 
Book  of  Revelation,  the  name  given  to  Him  is 
the  diminutive  form  of  the  word  Lamb,  as  if  the 
recollection  of  Him  when  actually  young  was  beauti- 
ful, and  the  associations  of  the  name  were  so  sugges- 
tive that  it  was  pleasant  to  recall  Him,  not  as  God's 
Lamb,  but  as  God's  little  Lamb. 


[126] 


CHAPTER  XIV 
LITTLE  TOUCHES 

Say  now,  Shibboleth:  and  he  said  Sibboleth  for  he 
could  not  frame  to  pronounce  it  right.  Judges  12 : 6. 

The  small  matter  of  pronunciation  seems  a  very 
little  item  to  stake  life  or  death  to  a  man  upon.  It 
makes  no  difference  how  minute  the  test  is  if  it  is 
sufficient  and  true  to  the  facts.  The  sound  "th"  can- 
not be  pronounced  by  the  Persians,  nor  by  the  Ger- 
man Jews,  who  put  s  in  the  place  of  t.  Frederick 
Christensen  was  the  person  selected  for  the  invidious 
task  of  testing  the  aliens,  seamen  or  passengers  who 
landed  at  Liverpool  claiming  they  were  natives  of 
friendly  countries.  No  man's  assertion,  even  when 
backed  by  papers  was  accepted.  There  is  an  unfail- 
ing test.  It  is  named  in  the  text.  The  real  pitfall 
for  a  foreigner  is  the  pronunciation  of  the  letters  "t" 
and  "h,"  or  more  deadly  still,  the  combination  of 
the  two  in  that  diphthong,  "th."  Germans  were 
asked  to  pronounce  this  sentence  correctly:  "The 
thieves  thought,  although  they  made  a  terrible  mis- 
take, that  their  path  was  smooth  and  threaded  the 
way  to  the  haven  of  their  hopes,  but  there  were  thorns 
and  thistles  there."  This  sentence  resulted  in  thirty 
arrests.  Here  is  a  shorter  sentence  used  as  a  test, 

[127] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

which  finally  settled  whether  it  should  be  a  sentence 
of  120  days  at  hard  labor  for  aliens,  or  a  transference 
to  the  tower  of  London:  "Thirty-three  thousand 
thieves  thrust  their  thirty-three  thousand  thistles. " 
Twenty-five  persons  were  convicted  by  it.  Sergt. 
Channel,  who  is  in  the  habit  of  dropping  his  h's,  and 
Sir  Frederick  Thesiger  were  once  trying  a  case  about 
a  ship  called  the  Helen.  Every  time  the  former  men- 
tioned the  vessel  he  called  it  the  Ellen.  Whenever 
the  other  counsel  mentioned  her  they  called  her  the 
Helen.  At  last  the  judge,  with  a  quaint  gravity,  said : 
'  *  Stop !  What  was  the  name  of  the  ship  ?  I  have  it 
on  my  notes  the  Ellen  and  the  Helen.  Which  is  it!" 
The  name  of  the  ship  is  one  and  the  same.  The  dif- 
ference designated  the  nationality  of  the  men  who 
pronounced  it. 

The  Gileadites  said  Shibboleth. 

When  they  took  the  passages  of  the  Jordan  and  the 
Ephraimite  said,  Let  me  go  over,  this  test  was  used, 
Say,  now,  Shibboleth,  which  means  an  ear  of  corn, 
and  he  would  say  Sibboleth,  which  means  a  heavy 
burden,  for  he  could  not  frame  to  pronounce  it  right. 
The  hatchet  story  is  the  smallest  incident  in  the  life 
of  our  greatest  American.  Yet  for  three  generations 
it  has  been  deemed  the  truest  exhibit  of  the  inner 
character  of  Washington.  It  is  quoted  as  indicative 
of  the  man,  and  is  in  effect  more  fruitful  than  a  hun- 
dred admonitions.  When  the  little  angry  Yankees 
walked  straight  up  to  the  door  of  General  Gage  and 
complained  to  him  in  person  that  his  soldiers  knocked 

[128] 


LITTLE   TOUCHES 

down  their  snow  forts  and  spoiled  their  slides,  it  was 
in  a  way  a  small  matter,  yet  it  revealed  the  American 
spirit  with  which  the  enemy  would  have  to  reckon 
at  Lexington,  Saratoga,  Trenton,  and  Yorktown.  We 
know  that  General  Gage  gave  it  that  interpretation, 
for  he  said  that  the  resolute  boys  would  make  good 
soldiers,  and  that  in  this  country  they  seemed  to 
breathe  in  liberty.  A  man  stepped  down  from  a  Pull- 
man car  into  the  arms  of  a  posse  of  police.  He  be- 
lieved he  was  unknown  and  could  not  be  identified. 
It  is  a  common  observation  that  a  criminal  always 
makes  the  wrong  move.  He  is  self-conscious  and  tries 
too  hard  to  be  unknown.  A  telegram  was  sent  to  the 
station,  last  before  his  destination,  for  a  detective  in 
ordinary  citizen's  garb,  to  travel  the  last  stage  of  his 
journey,  in  the  car  with  him  and  alight  as  he  did. 
This  being  done  the  detective  said  to  the  policeman, 
That's  your  man.  The  guilty  man  kept  doing  some- 
ing  to  undo  his  identity  and  this  marked  him.  It  was 
like  a  gratiuitous  oath,  not  wrung  from  a  man  by 
anger,  nor  called  forth  by  any  strong  emotion.  It 
came  right  out  of  him.  It  was  uttered  in  reference 
to  a  commonplace  occurrence  and  tells  the  story  that 
it  is  a  part  of  his  everyday  language.  There  are  no 

little  habits, 

There  are  no  petty  truths. 

We  Americans  are  so  trained  to  appreciate  big  things 
that  we  are  ill-prepared  for  the  stress  the  Bible  lays  on 
small  things.  Our  thought  is  so  keyed  up  to  conte 

[129] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

plate  the  largest  cataract  and  city,  the  longest  railroad 
and  river,  the  greatest  lake,  and  a  state  equaling  the 
area  of  Germany  and  the  British  Isles  together  that  we 
blink  America's  greatest  fault,  which  is  the  crime  of 
waste.  This  proceeds  by  littles  and  they  reveal  our 
national  character.  America  cannot  think  in  cents. 
The  slopes  abroad  are  terraced  to  support  and  save 
the  fertile  loam.  It  is  pitiful  to  see  what  efforts  are 
made,  to  till  to  its  utmost  capacity  the  small  spaces  on 
their  sky  farms  and  glean  the  bare  pittance  of  hay  and 
grain.  In  vain  for  us  the  Bible  points  with  com- 
mendation to  the  generous  widow  who  put  two  cop- 
pers into  the  treasury  thus  giving  more  than  all  the 
rest,  and  she  shows  her  character  by  a  test,  which  is 
correct  and  final.  Yet  it  was  a  small  matter.  The 
publican  made  a  short  prayer  of  seven  words  and  his 
character  was  revealed  by  the  very  littleness  of  the 
test.  A  minute,  artless  act  is  the  truest  sign.  Our 
Saviour  acted  on  this  when  he  made  the  test  of  dis- 
cipleship,  carrying  an  eternal  reward,  a  cup  of  cold 
water.  If  it  had  been  the  gift  of  $100  to  charity,  a 
man  educating  and  clothing  a  large  family  by  weekly 
wages  might  not  have  it  by  him.  But  under  any  con- 
ditions he  can  be  kind  and  considerate  and  neighborly 
and  helpful.  He  can  have  a  heart  and  show  it  by  any 
means  open  to  him  at  the  moment.  We  get  the  best 
picture  of  a  man  when  be  is  unconscious.  When  saw 
we  thee  thirsty  ?  The  man  did  not  know  he  was  being 
judged.  The  act  was  more  decisive,  being  just 
natural. 

[130] 


LITTLE   TOUCHES 

And  the  Lord  said,  unto  Gideon,  I  will  try  them 
for  thee. 

He  used  a  little  test. 

It  worked  perfectly.    The  result  was  the  best  possible 
as  Gideon  found.    It  revealed  Nature. 

Let  us  see  how  Shibboleth  so  operates  that  it  be- 
comes fully  a  test.  If  the  Ephraimite  had  been  de- 
tached before  he  began  to  talk  and  put  into  the 
Gileadite's  place,  it  would  have  been  easy  for  him  to 
say  Shibboleth.  Gilead  from  the  first  heard  it  pro- 
nounced Shibboleth.  That  was  example.  When  he 
began  to  pronounce  the  word  he  was  taught  to  say 
Shibboleth.  That  was  practice.  When  he  used  the 
word  familiarly  and  frequently  he  formed  a  habit,  and 
the  habit  established  his  character  as  a  Gileadite,  and 
it  carried  a  destiny.  He  formed  the  habit,  and  then 
the  habit  formed  him.  The  habit  actually  left  a 
mark  on  him,  so  deeply  imprinted  that  it  could  be 
easily  discerned  when  he  came  to  frame  to  pronounce 
a  word  right. 

A  man  walks  across  a  lawn  once.  The  effect  on 
the  grass  is  not  apparent.  If  he  takes  the  same 
course  day  by  day  he  makes  a  record.  The  path  was 
not  made  on  the  first  day,  nor  on  the  last,  but  both 
days  are  recorded  with  the  others  in  the  result. 
There  was  the  original  course  taken.  This  was  copy. 
It  became  a  way  of  doing,  a  way,  a  path,  a  route,  and 
when  worn  down  deep  this  route  is  called  a  rut.  Cut 
down  into  the  solid  lava  in  Pompeii  these  ruts  appear 

[131] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

in  the  narrow  paved  streets,  and  these  records  can 
never  be  effaced.  They  are  as  imperishable  as  the  en- 
during material  in  which  they  are  so  deeply  registered. 
In  repairing  a  church  in  Hartford,  the  parts  needing 
it  were  renewed,  with  the  honorable  exception  of  the 
stone  step,  worn  till  it  was  hollowed  out,  by  the  will- 
ing, faithful  feet  of  the  worshipers.  The  church  stone 
would  not  have  revealed  the  first  foot-prints  of  a  single 
visitor  to  that  holy  shrine.  But  the  record  is  now 
there  with  the  rest  and  the  effect  on  the  stone  is  not 
even  as  enduring,  as  the  effect  of  the  visit,  on  the  man 
that  came  to  the  house  of  prayer.  Each  of  us  is  now 
known  to  his  friends  by  his  handwriting.  It  is  as  dis- 
tinctive as  his  face.  It  differs  from  that  of  the  mem- 
bers of  his  own  family.  He  himself  formed  it. 

Now  look  at  it. 

It  is  the  product  of  habit.  It  will  remain  charac- 
teristic of  him.  Why  does  not  a  man  use  a  differ- 
ent hand  writing  each  new  day?  He  cannot.  A 
leopard  cannot  change  his  spots.  Nature  is  against 
it.  A  man  looking  at  an  unsigned  letter  can  tell  at  a 
glance  if  it  is  his  penmanship.  What  makes  it  so  dis- 
tinctive? If  he  had  begun  with  a  different  copy,  a 
different  teacher,  a  different  ambition,  a  different  pur- 
pose, his  handwriting  from  the  first  would  have  been 
different.  Let  us  see  him  entirely  change  it  now. 
It  is  like  the  individuality  of  old  apple  trees  in  an 
orchard.  They  are  angular,  rigid,  irregular.  Once 
at  certain  points  they  could  have  been  shaped,  but  now 
they  are  old,  as  Solomon  says,  That  which  is  crooked 

[132] 


LITTLE    TOUCHES 

cannot  be  made  straight.  When  a  maid  accused  Peter 
of  being  a  Galilean  he  became  excited,  and  they  that 
stood  by,  then  spoke  right  up  and  said,  thy  speech  be- 
trayeth  thee.  As  he  became  perturbed  his  nature  was 
less  concealed.  The  more  excited  he  grew,  up  to  the 
point  of  cursing  and  swearing,  the  more  his  original 
Galilean  nature  and  heritage  came  stalking  out. 
Every  Scotchman,  says  Sir  Walter  Scott,  has  a  pedi- 
gree. So  have  our  traits,  our  faults,  our  excellences, 
our  specialties,  and  our  distinctive  marks  of  character. 

It  is  true  even  of  our  taste. 

In  the  arts  we  are  quite  free  with  our  comments.  In 
the  pleasures  of  the  table  our  taste  would  have  been 
different  had  we  been  natives  and  residents  of  China 
or  Italy.  The  black  broth  of  the  Spartans  was  deli- 
cious to  them  though  loathsome  to  others.  If  one  will 
look  out  broadly  upon  men  and  nations,  he  will  observe 
that  people  can  adopt  almost  any  practice  or  diet  or 
habit,  and  custom  will  make  it  easy.  A  person  can 
make  long  hours,  in  a  business  that  he  likes,  and  that 
is  prosperous,  and  habit  will  make  it  easy.  Habit 
comes  from  a  Latin  word  that  in  the  third  person  sin- 
gular, when  applied  to  a  man,  comes  pretty  near  mean- 
ing, It  has  him.  It  means  a  mode  of  action  so  es- 
tablished by  use  as  to  be  entirely  natural,  involuntary, 
instinctive,  unconscious  and  uncontrollable.  It  was  so 
with  the  Ephraimite.  For  they  said  unto  him,  say 
now  Shibboleth  and  he  said  Sibboieth,  for  he  could  not 
frame  to  pronounce  it  right.  Habits  are  at  first  cob- 
webs, then  cables.  ''After  these  things/'  the  arrest  of 

[133] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

Christ,  the  trial,  the  crucifixion,  the  burial,  Simon 
Peter,  though  an  apostle,  feeling  that  they  had  wit- 
nessed the  closing  scenes,  said  to  his  associates,  "I 
go  a-fishing."  When  he,  by  the  death  of  Christ,  was 
left  to  himself,  and  restraints  were  off,  habit,  sounded 
a  recall  to  what  had  become  his  second  nature.  This 
becoming  the  method,  the  keynote  in  a  man's  life 
ought  to  be  right.  Good  music  cannot  well  be  made 
upon  a  wrong  scale,  nor  with  a  false  keynote.  There 
is  a  book  that  has  seen  service,  kept  near  at  hand 
which  if  held  on  its  back,  on  the  table  between  one's 
hands  and  then  released  suddenly  will  fall  open  at 
a  passage  so  impressive,  so  effective,  so  incompar- 
able that  it  has  been  much  consulted  and  much  ad- 
mired. It  is  in  the  life  of  Amos  Lawrence,  who 
took  his  final  departure  from  school,  at  thirteen  and 
entered  a  store.  He  became  one  of  the  merchant 
princes  of  Boston,  who  have  reached  high  places  in 
the  estimate  of  the  world,  and  have  given  distinction 
to  the  city  for  its  gifts  to  philanthropy.  He  was  an 
affectionate, 

Homeloving  boy, 

and  went  often  to  see  his  parents  in  Groton.  He 
would  drive  thirty-five  miles,  leaving  Boston  late 
Saturday  afternoon,  reach  home  about  midnight. 
Sunday,  starting  after  midnight  he  would  arrive  in 
Boston  about  daybreak,  so  that  his  business  never 
suffered  from  the  loss  of  a  single  moment  of  his  time. 
It  is  on  the  difference  of  going  just  right  and  a 
little  wrong  that  Amos  Lawrence  makes  destiny 

[134] 


LITTLE   TOUCHES 

turn.  "Now,  I  say,  to  this  simple  fact,  of  starting 
just  right,  am  I  indebted,  with  God's  blessing  on 
my  labors,  for  my  present  position,  as  well  as 
that  of  the  numerous  connections  sprung  up  around 
me."  The  wheel  of  an  engine  has  dead-points  and 
centres,  where  the  engine  can  exert  no  direct  power 
over  the  machinery.  The  wheel  has  to  rely  on  the 
impulse  already  received  to  carry  it  past  the  dead- 
point.  So,  when  staggered  by  an  overwhelming 
temptation,  the  soul  is  at  the  dead-point,  and  the 
force  of  habit  carries  us  by. 


[135] 


CHAPTER  XV 
" PLEASE  SLOW  DOWN" 

According  to  the  pace  of  the  children.     Gen.  33 : 14. 
Rev.   Version. 

Coming  down  the  gang  plank  as  he  is  landing 
from  the  ship  a  foreigner's  first  greeting  from  an 
American  is,  Step  lively  please.  It  is  said  that  the 
earliest  expression  learned  from  his  employer  is 
Hurry  up.  The  Hurry  Spirit  is  now  in  the  saddle, 
and  with  a  tightly  drawn  tension  things  have  been 
speeding  up  in  every  department  of  life.  We  are 
now  advancing  quick-step.  It  is  the  pace  that  kills. 
People  try  to  hurry  in  their  minds,  and  that  brings 
about  a  confusion  and  perturbation  that  are  unbear- 
able. Captain  Fume,  a  very  smart  man,  is  pictured 
running  to  and  fro,  shouting  down  below,  and  hailing 
fore  and  aft,  and  producing  a  tremendous  excitement 
all  around  in  getting  his  boat  under  way.  His  part 
is  to  work  himself  into  something  of  a  passion,  cause 
a  good  deal  of  a  stir,  be  sure  that  he  is  heard  in 
every  direction,  be  all  over  the  boat,  impress  people 
and  make  them  hold  their  breath.  He  is  thought 
to  be  a  tower  of  strength.  His  noise  and  bluster  and 
vehemence  are  looked  upon  as  so  much  propelling 
power,  and  the  evidence  that  things  are  moving. 

[136] 


"PLEASE   SLOW  DOWN" 

Trains  must  now  scud,  running  express  as  if  in 
a  race  of  life  or  death,  not  stopping  even  at  the  chief 
stations.  "Where  does  this  train  go?"  exclaimed  a 
breathless,  hurrying  passenger.  "It  goes  to  New 
York  in  ten  minutes." 

Good  level  roads  are  being  built  rapidly,  as  au- 
tomobiles are  geared  high  and  are  to  go  at  top  speed. 
Finger  boards  are  supplied  so  that  the  car  can  bowl 
along  at  a  scorching  rate  and  not  stop  for  foolishness 
anywhere.  Obstacles  are  an  impertinence,  and 
every  trip  is  a  hurry  call.  The  lure  of  the  remote 
and  distant  is  upon  us,  and  we  must  get  there.  We 
have  been  living  fast,  and  the  only  change  is  that 
we  have  come  to  live  faster. 

Now  there  is  at  this  same  hour 

A  children's  world. 

The  little  dwellers  in  it  have  the  right  to  be  recog- 
nized, shielded,  and  educated.  The  little  child  is 
the  important  factor  in  this  universe.  He  is  the 
element  of  infinite  worth.  In  our  nearest  school- 
house  there  are  750  pupils,  the  youngest  aged  four. 
He,  with  his  possibilities,  with  his  life  all  before  him, 
is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world.  What  is  hurry  to 
us,  is  harsh  to  him.  Of  all  the  signs  displayed  I  like 
best,  the  one  in  Wenham,  on  the  way  to  Asbury 
Grove.  It  has  pathos  in  its  entreaty,  and  tells  in 
fewest  words  its  plea. 

SCHOOL  CHILDREN 

PLEASE  SLOW  DOWN 

When  a  driver  has  opened  out  all  the  stops  and  has 

[137] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

his  teeth  set,  his  brow  contracted,  his  gaze  fixed,  all 
his  powers  bent  on  projecting  his  swift  racer  like  a 
cannon  ball,  willing  for  speed's  sake,  to  commit 
suicide  in  the  street,  this  slogan  suggests  to  a  chauf- 
feur pushing  his  motor  too  hard,  There  are  others. 
Do  not  sin  against  the  child  who  is  artless,  is  unsus- 
pecting, and  asks  for  sympathy  and  consideration 
and  has  a  right  to  them.  Children  are  children  all 
the  world  over,  and  show  by  their  complete  similar- 
ity, that  they  are  entitled  to  attention  as  a  class. 
Nature  by  it,  is  giving  each  generation  a  fresh  start. 
The  children's  world,  unlike  ours,  does  not  break  up 
into  clans,  nor  separate  into  upper  and  lower  circles, 
nor  divide  into  castes.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Bible 
more  sweet  and  tender  than  its  pleadings  for  the 
children.  They  seem  to  be  its  adopted  children. 
Our  Lord  makes  the  child  his  client  and  tells  what 
would  better  happen  to  a  man  than  that  he  should 
offend  one  of  these  little  ones.  "Boys  will  be  Boys"  is 
sometimes  uttered  as  a  form  of  reproach.  Boys 
ought  to  be  boys. 

Boys  need  to  "be  "boys. 

Any  process  which  seeks  to  transform  them  into  grave 
and  reverend  seniors  before  their  time  not  only  must 
fail,  it  ought  to  fail.  We  want  it  to  fail. 

How  can  a  person  make  a  jest  of  the  deference 
that  is  paid  by  a  grandsire  to  the  children  of  his 
children.  His  conduct  is  the  deepest  lesson  that  it  is 
permitted  him  to  give  to  the  world.  It  says  in  an 

[138] 


"PLEASE   SLOW  DOWN" 

acted  language,  too  deeply  felt  for  words,  that  he  ap- 
preciates childhood  now.  He  has  witnessed  what 
his  children  have  become  and  sees  possiblities  in  the 
next  generation  that  he  did  not  believe  or  realize  un- 
til he  had  witnessed  his  own  children  begin,  as  they 
did,  and  then  become  such  factors  in  the  world,  some 
of  them  earning  from  the  start  more  salary  than  he 
ever  received  in  his  life.  But  in  particular  he  sees 
that  children,  when  extremely  young,  are  taught 
most  and  best,  by  both  precept  and  example  and 
that  they  are  approached,  on  their  affectional  side. 
He  uses  now  Jacob's  method  and  leads  on  softly, 
according  to  the  pace  of  the  children.  These  grand- 
parents are  conscious  of  little  omissions,  and  are 
making  some  small  atonements  and  taking  some  new 
attitudes  which  come  out  of  their  hearts  and  their 
deep  experiences  and  their  studies,  both  of  human 
nature  and  God's  word.  If  they  had  not  gained  our 
confidence,  if  all  barriers  to  our  hearts  had  not  been 
thrown  down,  if  by  them  our  affections  had  not  been 
touched,  their  example,  their  well  directed  word, 
their  call  to  duty  or  to  prayer,  would  not  have  had 
its  known  effect.  Under  their  influence  did  we  have 
religious  feeling.  There  can  be  no  religious  feeling 
without  religious  life.  There,  in  the  atmosphere  of 
love,  were  signs  in  us  of  religious  life,  and  we  so 
young.  It  was  for  them 

A  great  religious  opportunity,  greatly  used. 
That  religious  impression,  if  not  received  then,  would 
never  have  come  at  all.  A  message  received  at  twenty- 

[139] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

one  would  have  been  different.  To  have  been  without 
our  first  impressions  of  God,  of  the  heavenly  life,  of 
the  practice  of  prayer,  and  of  its  answers,  of  sin,  its 
confession,  and  its  forgiveness  would  have  been  a  loss 
that  never  could  be  later  supplied.  They  became 
the  message  from  another  world  to  a  child  and  were 
so  understood,  and  thus  left  an  imprint  never  to  be 
effaced.  When  we  were  at  a  plastic  age,  if  we  had  not 
received  those  religious  impressions  we  should  never 
have  had  them,  and  it  would  have  been  our  greatest 
loss,  as  they  are  a  reality  at  this  hour.  We  should 
have  had  an  address,  made  by  some  later  individual, 
but  this  would  have  meant  the  loss  to  us,  of  what  we 
received  then,  and  have  carried  every  day  since,  and 
shall  have  in  our  experience  at  every  turn  of  life,  liv- 
ing or  dying.  Coming  to  us  in  the  person  of  our 
grand-parents 

The   Spirit, 

to  use  Jacob's  phrase  in  our  text, 
Led  on  softly 

according  to  the  pace  of  the  children.  That  dis- 
tinguished New  England  pastor  and  writer,  whose 
influence,  on  the  ministers  of  English  churches  has 
been  greater  than  that  of  all  other  American  divines 
together,  says  with  much  emphasis,  Let  every  Chris- 
tian father  and  mother  understand,  when  the  child 
is  three  years  old,  that  they  have  done  more  than  half 
of  all  they  will  ever  do  for  his  character.  More  is 
done  on  the  child's  immortality  in  the  first  three  years 

[140] 


"PLEASE   SLOW  DOWN" 

of  his  life  than  in  all  his  years  of  discipline  after- 
ward. 

There  is  one  type  of  address  to  boys  and  girls 
that  is  of  amazing  and  unfailing  interest  to  them, 
and  that  is  a  vital  recital  of  an  experience  of  our  own 
when  we  were  of  their  age.  They  will  know  in- 
stantly by  its  marks  if  it  is  true  of  their  time  of  life, 
and  if  it  is  and  has  a  point  in  it  their  welcome  and 
their  delight  are  obvious. 

Children  can  start  only  from  themselves. 
They  have  not  traveled  widely,  they  have  no  ex- 
perience in  business,  not  of  advanced  life,  and  if 
others  will  enter  into  their  world  and  tell  about 
themselves,  when  they  were  little,  and  be  at  home 
with  them,  instead  of  trying  to  drag  them  out  of 
their  world,  they  seem  to  feel  an  extravagant  joy. 
If  a  grown  person  will  take  some  notice  of  their  sled, 
making  them  feel  all  the  while  that  it  is  distinctly 
theirs  and  will  give  it  direction,  will  help  them  about 
their  snow  fort  or  snow  man,  the  memory  and  the 
good  influence  of  the  delightful  companionship  seems 
to  go  on  with  them,  as  Kipling  said,  to  the  children 
always  and  always  and  always.  An  adult  stepped 
out  of  his  world  into  theirs  and  for  a  few  moments 
it  was  a  good  thing  for  him  and  them,  for  he,  like 
Jacob,  led  on  softly  according  to  the  pace  of  the 
children.  A  child  will  cry  when  brought  into  a  com- 
pany where  everyone  is  strange.  He  has  no  connec- 
tion with  anybody  or  anything,  and  is  uninterested 
and  alarmed.  A  chief  justice  of  the  United  States 

[141] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

appeared  on  Sunday  at  the  door  of  a  church  at  the 
beginning  of  children's  service.  The  speaker,  in 
dismay,  told  him  that  it  was  an  appointment  an- 
nounced and  that  he  feared  it  would  have  to  be  kept, 
and  the  great  man  said,  "Then  I  will  become  a  little 
child.  "  That  was  Christ's  desire  for  him,  as  for  us 
all,  and  the  boys  and  girls  felt  honored  and  were 
overjoyed  to  have  him  unbend  and  enter  their  world 
and  company  with  them  according  to  the  pace  of  the 
children.  In  the  memorial  of  Doctor  G.  W.  Hos- 
mer,*  he  was  sent,  it  appears,  when  twelve  to  drive 
a  flock  of  sheep  to  a  pasture  thirty-six  miles  distant. 
He  spent  the  first  night  at  his  uncle's  and  was  lifted 
up  with  the  praise  which  his  smartness  elicited  from 
his  uncle  and  his  aunt,  and  so  started  on  rejoicing.  By 
the  middle  of  the  forenoon  one  of  the  sheep  was  tired 
out. 

She  lay  down  and  gave  up. 

He  held  her  up  and  tried,  in  all  ways,  to  push  her 
along,  but  it  was  useless.  He  had  to  leave  her 
with  Gen.  Gardner,  of  Bolton.  Five  miles  further 
along  two  other  sheep  gave  out  and  gave  up.  His 
instructions  did  not  provide  for  tired  sheep.  The 
whole  thought  was  on  the  destination.  Even 
teachers  tell  children  what  they  want  to  have  done, 
but  do  not  indicate  definitely  enough  about  the  inter- 
mediate processes.  The  answer  to  a  problem  is 
printed  in  the  book,  the  difficulty  however  is  in  work- 
ing it  out.  All  are  agreed  about  the  final  result, 
but  the  mind  gets  upset  in  the  confusion  of  unlocked 


[142] 


"PLEASE   SLOW  DOWN" 

for  details.  Boys  are  to  be  men  and  we,  at  the  start 
begin  to  think  of  them,  in  terms  of  that  end,  and  if 
the  fact  is  revealed,  that  a  boy  is  not  a  man,  the 
exclamation  is,  "Oh,  you  baby,"  and  this  is  neither 
fair  nor  decent.  Jacob  undertook  no  forced  march, 
no  dash  for  the  pole,  but  led  on  softly  according  to 
the  pace  of  the  children.  The  pace  is  set  by  a  child, 
like  the  little  fellow  that  acts  as  coxswain  in  a  boat. 
Small  as  he  is,  he  does  the  steering  and  sets  the  pace. 
Now,  boys,  hit  her  up,  and  eight  great  muscular  men, 
moving  in  exact  rhythm  will  cause  their  long  oars  to 
rise  and  fall  with  exactness,  and  the  boat  to  pierce  its 
way  like  a  dart.  If  any  member  of  the  crew  is  list- 
less, and  glances  at  the  crowd  on  the  shore,  his  un- 
sparing command  is,  Eyes  in  the  boat.  And  this 
association  of  the  big,  with  the  little,  is  a  great  pleas- 
ure and  blessing  to  the  little  if  as,  with  Jacob,  the 
fact  is  kept  in  mind  that  younger  persons  are  com- 
panying  with  us  and  we  must  govern  ourselves  in 
view  of  that  fact.  On  the  links  for  golf,  thoughtless 
and  excitable  persons  need  to  rule  their  conduct, 
their  speech,  their  disuse  of  Sabbath  hours,  heeding, 
first  of  all,  what  is  best  for  the  youngest.  As  the 
social  pace  gets  faster  and  faster,  the  family  trend 
needs  to  be  slackened  according  to  the  pace  of  the 
children.  The  conversation  like  water  will  seek  its 
own  level  and  flow  progressively  around  the  children. 
Let  us  reverence  their  simplicity,  their  good- 
humored  honest  joys,  their  unworldliness,  their  un- 
suspicious friendship,  and  pray  that  we  may  grow 

[143] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

into  its  likeness,  be  converted  and  become  as  little 
children.  The  reason  why  so  many  of  our  great 
abolitionists  and  reformers  are  so  fractious  and  scold 
so  unmercifully  is  because  they  do  not  distinguish 
between  manufacture  and  growth.  Dry  dead  timber 
can  be  carved  and  soon  finished,  but  in  growth 

Nature  must  have  her  time. 

Farmers  who  are  near  to  Nature  do  not  seek  to  hurry 
her.  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce  and  others  agitated 
thirty  years,  before  the  British  nation,  and  then  more 
promptly  than  ourselves,  came  to  consciousness  that 
negroes  were  not  chattels.  In  our  schooldays,  the 
seeds  of  reform,  in  temperance  were  being  diligently 
sown,  and  only  recently,  helped  by  the  war,  also  by 
the  unwillingness  of  people  to  have  a  chauffeur  partly 
drunk  drive  an  automobile  (a  thing  that  has  been 
freely  granted  in  the  matter  of  a  horse),  has  the  har- 
vest seemed  to  be  ripening  rapidly. 

All  great  things  must  have  their  time.  The  best 
grow  slowest.  The  forcing  habit  is  a  mistake.  Be- 
ware of  the  short  cut  to  wealth.  Scholars  are  not 
made  in  a  day.  In  developing  a  fine  animal  for  good 
service  the  trainer,  like  Jacob,  leads  on  softly.  Thou 
hast  made  summer,  said  the  psalmist,  but  the  ad- 
vance is  so  gradual,  the  creative  days  are  so  many, 
and  so  long,  and  men  are  so  impatient  to  move 
rapidly,  that  it  travesties  the  Scripture,  to  speak  of  a 
man's  walking  with  God.  The  man  strikes  a  gait 
that  is  inconsistent  with  a  calm  spirit,  with  serenity, 
and  with  quiet  reverential  ways. 

[144] 


"PLEASE   SLOW  DOWN" 

The  most  painful  episode  in  the  life  of  St.  Paul 
came  from  the  flat  refusal  to  look  with  leniency  upon 
the  fitful  conduct  of  iirimature  Mark.  He  had  dis- 
appointed St.  Paul's  expectations,  who  felt  he  had 
difficulties  enough  without  involving  himself  any 
further  with  the  inconstancy  of  youth.  The  great- 
est Apostle  of  them  all,  appears  at  the  least  ad- 
vantage, in  an  attempt  to  solve  the  practical  problem, 

How  to  deal  with  the  young. 

The  first  dissension  in  the  early  church  was  over  the 
method  of  treating  with  young  disciples.  Mark's  de- 
fection was  simply  boyish.  Things  were  not  going  to 
suit  him  and  he  may  have  preferred  to  be  at  home,  had 
had  enough  and  simply  quit.  Paul  was  intolerant.  We 
are  not  vindicating  Mark;  we  cannot,  but  he  was 
young.  The  older  and  greater  the  apostle  became  the 
less  did  he  seem  fitted  to  get  along  with  youth,  who 
have  the  traits  that  go  with  the  lack  of  years.  Paul 
led  in  a  sharp  contension  and  those  who  had  been 
friends  departed  asunder,  the  one  from  another.  This 
Scripture  teacheth,  Keep  together,  keep  sweet,  face  the 
facts  including,  in  some  cases,  the  youthfulness  of 
the  young.  This  earliest  quarrel  between  church 
workers  has  been  repeated  in  their  age  from  that  day 
to  our  own,  and  the  issue  has  been  the  same.  The 
party  of  the  first  part  feels  that  a  boy  ought  to  be- 
have like  a  man,  that  a  new  recruit  ought  to  count  as 
a  tried  and  seasoned  warrior,  while  the  party  of  the 
second  part,  knoweth  our  frame,  remembereth  that 
we  are  dust,  and  that  the  companions  of  apostles  are 

[146] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

boys  before  they  are  men.  Mark  could  have  given 
no  higher  praise  to  Barnabas  than  has  just  been 
given  to  a  champion  of  the  boys  of  whom  they  said, 
"He  is  the  man  that  understands."  The  man  who 
adheres  to  them,  while  at  the  same  time  he  thoroughly 
knows  their  qualities,  including  their  frailties. 


[146] 


CHAPTER  XVI 
PAUL  JR. 

And  when  Paul's  sister's  son  heard  of  their  lying  in 
wait,  he  went  and  entered  into  the  castle  and  told  Paul. 
Acts  23:16.* 

I  could  stand  before  that  sterling  boy  hat  in 
hand.  We  are  taught  to  "rise  up  before  the  hoary 
head"  and  to  reverence  age,  but  I  honor  a  boy  that 
has  a  quick  mind,  real  courage  and  a  prompt  decision 
to  do,  himself,  the  thing  that  must  be  done.  One  of 
the  commonest  errors,  as  in  this  incident,  is  for  per- 
sons to  say  things,  and  to  act  themselves  out,  with 
the  delusion  that  all  will  go  unheeded  because  the 
witness  is  so  young.  Here  is  the  indication  that 
Paul's  sister's  son,  whose  name  is  not  given,  it  may 
have  been  Paul  Jr.  or,  more  properly,  Paul  Second, 
was  far  from  being  grown ;  otherwise  these  wily  men 
would  never  have  handed  out  the  means  of  their  own 
defeat. 

They  under-estimate  a  boy. 

The  whole  community  sometimes  finds  that  it  has  done 
this.  A  church,  a  teacher,  a  Sunday  School  may  do  it. 
It  would  have  been  possible  for  a  visitor,  in  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Salter's  Sunday  School  to  have  undervalued  a 

*  Scripture  Lesson,   Acts  23:12-29. 

[147] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

bare-footed  boy,  who  sat  there,  little  Sammy  Byers, 
who  afterward  wrote  the  great  war-song,  which  gave 
even  the  name  to  the  campaign,  "Sherman's  March 
to  the  Sea."  At  the  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  Dr.  Salter's  pastorate,  Consul  Byers,  who 
wrote  what  is  called  the  "State  Song  of  Iowa," 
which  has  been  adopted  by  fifteen  hundred  schools 
and  colleges  in  that  Commonwealth  and  that  pearl 
among  books  of  travel,  ' c  Switzerland  and  the  Swiss, ' ' 
boasted  that  he  still  owned  a  Testament  which  was 
given  him  in  Dr.  Salter's  Sunday  School  for  com- 
mitting Bible  verses  to  memory.  And  in  the  same 
typical  Sunday  school  was  a  boy,  subject  to  under 
valuation,  named  John  M.  Corse,  to  whom  later 
General  Sherman  signalled:  "Hold  fast.  We  are 
coming."  For  at  Altoona  2,700,000  rations  were 
stored,  being  three  weeks'  supply  of  bread  for  Sher- 
man's whole  army,  and  to  retain  this  provision  was 
a  question  of  life  or  death.  Gen.  French,  a  Con- 
federate, sent  a  message  to  Gen.  Corse,  demanding 
his  surrender  to  "save  a  needless  effusion  of  blood," 
and  allowed  Gen.  Corse  five  minutes  for  deliberation, 
to  which  the  Sunday  School  scholar  replied  that  he 
was  ready  for  the  "needless  effusion  of  blood"  when- 
ever it  was  agreeable  to  General  French,  and  the  as- 
sault began. 

Again  the  signalling  came,  "Tell  Altoona,  'Hold 
on.  General  Sherman  says  he  is  working  hard  for 
you;'  "  and  General  Sherman  said,  "I  know  he  will 
hold  out,  for  I  know  the  man."  Although  as  General 

[148] 


PAUL  JR. 

Corse  said,  "My  losses  are  very  heavy/'  one-third 
of  the  entire  command,  and  he  was  "short  a  cheek- 
bone and  an  ear,"  he  had  the  grit  to  "hold  the  fort;" 
and  this  gave  P.  P.  Bliss  the  song  and  fame  that  went 
round  the  world  and  came  back  in  Chinese.  One  of 
the  last  of  P.  P.  Bliss'  compositions,  the  one  he  sang 
at  Rome,  N.  Y.,  only  two  nights  before  his  tragic 
death  in  a  railroad  horror  at  Ashtabula  Creek,  was 
"Hold  Fast  Till  I  Come,"  which  was  almost  the 
exact  words  of  one  of  Sherman's  signals  to  John  M. 
Corse. 

Pass  not  by  that  child  unheeding; 

Smile  upon  him.     Mark  me,  when 
He's  grown  old  he'll  not  forget  it ; 

For,  remember,  boys  make  men. 

Let  us  try  to  add  some  pleasure 

To  the  life  of  every  boy; 
For  each  child  needs  tender  interest 

In  its  sorrow  and  its  joy. 

The  eyes  and  heart  of  St.  Paul's  sister  must 
have  overflowed  when  she  knew  that  her  young  son, 
probably,  had  saved  the  life  of  the  great  apostle  by 
doing  a  task  that  even  she  could  not  have  done. 
When  forty  wicked,  determined  men,  with  an  adroit 
plan,  had  banded  together  and  bound  themselves  un- 
der a  curse  that  they  would  neither  eat  nor  drink  till 
they  had  killed  Paul,  his  sister's  son  knew  of  their 
lying  in  wait  and  went  and  entered  into  the  castle 
and  told  Paul.  There  is  almost  a  mother's  familiar 

[149] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

kindness,  an  exceeding  tenderness  in  Paul's  conduct 
as  he  handed  the  genial,  open-hearted  boy,  every- 
body's friend,  along  without  any  word  of  admonition 
or  guidance  whatever,  to  go  on  alone  with  his  efforts 
to  save  Paul's  life.  That  boy  with  native  ingenuity 
will  make  his  way  and  his  mark  in  the  world.  All 
the  little  things  about  him  reveal  high  breeding.  I 
see  in  him  the  influence  of  his  mother,  who  was 
trained  in  the  same  household  with  St.  Paul  and 
had  exactly  the  same  rich  inheritance  of  mind  and 
heart.  Lysias,  perceiving  at  a  glance  his  value,  took 
him  by  the  hand  and,  continuing  to  hold  his  hand, 
went  aside  privately  and  asked  him,  What  is  that 
thou  hast  to  tell  me?  What  a  human  touch  is  given 
when  the  boy,  having  superior  steadiness,  stability, 
and  deference  to  older  persons,  yet  a  boy,  before 
completing  his  errand,  or  even  stating  his  case,  drops 
in  a  word  of  advice  to  the  chief  captain. 

That's  the  loy  of  it. 

His  ingenuous  eye  looks  unflinchingly  into  his.  No 
lie  or  equivocation  falters  from  his  lips.  With 
native  notions  of  right  and  wrong,  he  loved  jus- 
tice with  the  true  first  love  of  a  high  spirited  boy, 
and  the  lad,  the  earnest  boy  tells  the  chief  captain, 
But  do  not  thou  yield  unto  them.  A  boy  has  less 
humbug  about  him  than  his  elders.  A  boy,  too,  has  less 
fear.  A  physician  will  say  that  in  a  critical  illness  a 
boy  is  the  more  likely  to  pull  through,  for,  unlike  the 
man,  he  does  not,  to  the  malady,  add  worry  and  fear 

[150] 


PAUL  JR. 

that  he  may  not  live.  A  boy  makes  a  surprising  re- 
covery when,  as  the  expression  indicates,  a  man 
literally  is  frightened  to  death.  Boys  are  soldiers, 
have  courage,  that  quality  that  makes  them  heroes. 
They  do  not  hold  themselves  back  from  exposure  to 
danger.  Their  minds  being  clarified  from  fears  and 
forebodings,  and  all  the  attending  difficulties,  their 
instincts  are  prompt  in  emergencies.  Their  career 
you  can  judge  with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy  in  ad- 
vance. All  the  perfections  seem  bound  up  in  them. 
You  do  not  fear  for  their  welfare ;  you  feel  that  they 
will  be  successful  on  the  high  lines  of  life. 

Oh,  boys,  boys. 

You  do  not  know  what  admiration  is  felt  when  you, 
like  Paul  Jr.,  take  up  a  difficult  and  important  task 
and  do  it  well.  You  have  opportunities  that  are  not 
given  to  your  elders  just  as  Jonathan's  little  lad  was 
better  suited  to  his  work  than  a  man.  The  advantage 
is  with  the  boy.  When  the  conspirators  against  his 
uncle's  life,  talk  over  their  program  in  his  hearing, 
with  perfect  oblivion  of  him,  he  has  an  hour  and  an 
opportunity  afforded  him  only  because  he  is  a  boy. 
So  was  it  when  a  lad,  unnoticed  by  General  Lee, 
overheard  his  conversation  on  meeting  some  of  the 
members  of  his  staff  on  the  streets  of  Chambersburgh, 
Pennsylvania,  when  he  said  to  them  that  he  had  de- 
cided to  march  to  Gettysburg  instead  of  Harrisburg. 
It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  the  great 
struggle  of  the  Rebellion  turned  upon  the  battle  of 

[151] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

Gettysburg.  General  Lee,  reenforced  by  General 
Longstreet,  had  determined  upon  his  second  invasion 
of  the  North.  The  lamentable  disasters  at  Freder- 
icksburg  and  Chancellorsville  had  produced  a  de- 
pressing effect  upon  the  country  at  large.  Our 
national  currency,  which  is  quick  to  detect  the  feel- 
ings of  the  popular  heart,  ran  right  down  to  its 
minimum  in  value.  Volunteering  began  to  flag. 
Desertions  from  our  army  had  never  been  so  fre- 
quent. General  Lee  promised  his  followers  the  cap- 
ture of  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  or  Washington. 
The  condition  of  things  was  desperate.  Our  national 
leaders  were  thoroughly  alarmed.  It  was  their 
darkest  day.  The  boy,  hearing  the  conversation 
waited  to  see  that  the  movements  confirmed  the  con- 
versation. This  they  did. 

With  feet  like  hind's  feet  he  pressed  his  way  to 
the  telegraph  office,  and  wired  the  utterably  import- 
ant tidings  to  Governor  Curtin. 

The  great  and  good  war  governor,  quick  as 
thought,  ordered  out  a  locomotive  without  any  cars 
to  hinder  its  flight,  to  speed  like  the  wind  along  the 
track  to  bring  the  boy  that  had  heard  General  Lee 
talk  in  that  way.  The  detached  engine  is  said  to 
have  flown  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  an  hour.  The 
little  bashful  boy,  a  farmer's  son,  soon  stood  in  the 
governor's  imposing  presence. 

Gathering  about,  the  governor's  friends  were 
trembling  with  excitement.  The  boy  recited  the 
facts  just  as  they  occurred.  The  governor  looked 

[152] 


PAUL  JR. 

anxiously  into  the  faces  of  his  friends,  and  said,  "I 
would  give  my  right  hand  to  know  that  this  boy  tells 
the  truth." 

Now,  there  chanced  to  be  a  corporal  at  head- 
quarters who  knew  the  boy,  and  he  said, 

"Governor  Curtin,  I  know  that  boy. 
I  lived  in  the  same  neighborhood  with  him,  and  it  is 
absolutely  impossible  for  him  to  lie.     There  is  not  a 
drop  of  false  blood  in  his  veins." 

In  five  minutes  an  order  reached  headquarters, 
and  in  fifteen  minutes  the  troops  were  pushing  their 
way  toward  Gettysburg;  and  when  they  came  into 
proximity  to  the  place  of  engagement,  enthusiasm 
spread  like  an  infection,  and  the  men,  with  a  cheer, 
went  up  into  the  line  of  battle  on  a  run.  More  men 
were  left  dead  upon  this  best-marked  field,  in  point  of 
monumental  work  in  all  the  world  than  perished  on 
both  sides  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War;  and  when, 
on  the  third  of  July,  our  troops  were  victorious,  and 
General  Lee  began  his  retreat,  he  said  sadly,  "This  is 
the  beginning  of  the  end. ' ' 

General  Horace  Porter  has  indicated  the  fact 
that  Gettysburg  seems  to  be  the  banner  battle-field 
for  the  adventures  of  boys,  and  attributes  it  to  the 
fact  that  this  engagement  was  fought  near  a  good- 
sized  town  and  in  a  thickly  populated  section  of  coun- 
try, and  non-combatants  of  all  kinds  intermingled 
with  the  troops. 

From  him  we  learn  that  General  Hancock  used 
to  tell  of  a  boy  scarcely  six  years  old,  who,  in  the 

[153] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

midst  of  the  fighting,  was  seen  coming  toward  him 
with  a  musket  which  he  was  dragging  across  the 
field,  not  having  the  strength  to  carry  it.  When 
near  enough  to  speak,  a  feeble  little  voice,  that  could 
scarcely  be  heard  amidst  the  rattling  of  musketry, 
the  roar  of  artillery,  and  the  shouts  of  struggling 
men,  cried  out:  "Here's  my  papa's  gun.  Papa  is 
dead,  but  here's  his  gun.  Somebody  else  must  shoot 
it.  Papa  can't  shoot  it  any  more."  The  father,  like 
other  patriotic  citizens  who  lived  there,  had  taken 
part  in  the  defence  of  the  town.  The  child  had 
strayed  after  him,  and  seemed  to  know  that  the  gun 
ought  not  to  be  idle  on  such  a  day.  As  the  general 
heard  the  boy's  story,  and  spoke  a  kindly  word,  and 
ordered  him  to  be  taken  to  a  place  of  safety,  "  some- 
thing on  the  soldier's  cheek  washed  off  the  stains 
of  powder." 

What  unconscious  preparations  are  now  pro- 
ceeding in  life.  Unwittingly  boys  are  being  prepared 
to  give  guidance  to  governors,  and  chief  captains, 
and  to  stand  in  heroic  positions.  Nothing  will  re- 
enforce  a  boy  in  a  crisis-time  of  his  life  like  a  char- 
acter established  in  the  truth.  That  symbolic 
character  of  our  country,  Uncle  Sam  is  pictured  in 
the  act  of  greeting  the  boys  that  lately  went  to  war 
to  make  existence  safe  for  the  smallest  nations,  with 
the  words, 

Oh,  How  do  you  do? 

I  have  seen  you  before  in  1776,  in  1812,  in  1861  and  I 
am  glad  to  see  you  now  in  1917.  The  heroic  age  of 

[154] 


PAUL  JR. 

the  Revolution  is  only  four  generations  removed  from 
us,  and  the  heroisms  we  are  reviewing  are  but  one. 

The  boy  is  now  living  somewhere  in  the  land  who 
will  see  the  last  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Republic  laid  away  to  sleep  in  his  deep,  narrow, 
windowless  home.  He  will  be  tenderly  cherished  by 
a  grateful  country,  because  he  is  the  last  link  which 
will  bind  the  land  to  a  glorious  past.  The  country's 
welfare  will  then  have  passed  into  hands  warmed  by 
hearts  that  are  now  young.  At  the  Philadelphia 
Exposition,  America's  most  popular  picture,  The 
Spirit  of  76,  now  preserved  in  Abbott  Hall  at 
Marblehead,  was  admired  for  its  remarkable  natural- 
ness and  for  the  story  it  portrayed.  It  is  un- 
doubtedly the  most  widely  reproduced  work  of  any 
American  artist,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Stewart's  portrait  of  Washington. 

The  scene  is  laid  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth.  An 
aged  fifer  advances  with  evident  determination  to  the 
fray,  his  gray  locks  streaming  in  the  wind.  A 
drummer-boy  by  his  side  is  looking  sidewise  anxiously 
into  the  old  man's  face,  and  catching  from  him  the 
tune  and  the  step  of  the  music  of  liberty.  The  boys 
so  far  have  never  failed  the  nation.  They  will  not 
fail  it  now.  Give  them  passion  for  their  country, 
for  the  church,  for  books,  for  business,  for  teaching, 
for  mechanics,  and  you  give  them  a  lever  with  which 
to  lift  the  world. 


[155] 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  SOUND  AND  ROBUST  HAVE  NO 

MONOPOLY 
The  Lame  Take  the  Prey.    Isa.  23:  33. 

In  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  early  in  the  last  century,  three  men  held  a 
place  of  unrivaled  pre-eminence,  Wellington,  Scott 
and  Byron.  Caledonia,  stern  and  wild,  was  a  meek 
nurse  for  a  poetic  child  and  the  genius  of  Scotland 
embodied  in  Sir  Walter  Scott  gave  him  his  passport 
to  fame  and  the  world's  applause.  The  Scotch 
thistle,  a  wayside  weed,  he  promoted  into  universal 
botany  and  it  now  blooms,  less  prickly  than  of  yore, 
in  the  gardens  of  the  world.  The  Life  of  Napoleon 
produced  to  the  author,  or  rather  to  his  creditors, 
about  ninety  thousand  dollars;  an  amount  for  a 
single  work  unprecedented  in  the  annals  of  literature. 
Byron  conducts  his  readers  through  scenes  of  sur- 
passing splendor  and,  for  eloquent  expression  of 
sentiment,  and  for  poetical  beauty,  has  no  peer 
among  writers  of  the  English  school,  and  for  a  few 
years,  it  seemed  as  if  the  world  had  but  one  great 
poet.  Now  these  two  out  of  three  acknowledged 
leaders  were  visibly,  painfully  lame,  and  as  for 
Arthur  Wellesley,  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  the 

[156] 


THE  SOUND  AND  ROBUST  HAVE  NO  MONOPOLY 

representative  of  Ireland,  he  was  under-vitalized, 
having  very  indifferent  health,  and  his  noticeable 
inferiority  was  no  small  concern  to  his  widowed 
mother.  He  had  little  or  no  enthusiasm  for  play, 
never  engaged  in  it  and  when  his  comrades  sallied 
forth  with  shouts  and  buoyant  spirits  he  came  lag- 
ging out  of  the  school  room  into  the  play-ground,  in 
the  center  of  which,  was  a  large  walnut  tree  against 
which  he  used  to  lounge  and  lean.  The  first  intima- 
tion that  his  mother  had  that  he  had  left  the  school 
in  which  he  had  been  placed  was  the  decisive  one, 
of  seeing  him  in  a  public  place,  causing  her  to  ex- 
claim, almost  angrily  as  she  had  not  seen  him  for 
two  years,  I  do  believe  there  is 

My  ugly  ~boy  Arthur. 

He  gave  no  indications  of  being  cast  in  the  heroic 
mould,  and  a  thing  that  then  seemed,  as  unlikely  as 
for  the  sun  to  stand  still  upon  Gideon  and  the  moon 
in  the  valley  of  Ajalon,  happened  when  he  vic- 
toriously brought  the  terrible  conflict,  which  had, 
lasted  twenty-two  years,  to  a  termination  by 
defeating  Napoleon  on  the  field  of  Waterloo. 

When  the  great  world-war  was  at  its  height,  we 
held  our  text  with  confidence  for  on  the  side  of  the 
Allies  Field-Marshall  Sir  Douglas  Haig  was  color 
blind  which  was  so  serious  an  obstacle  that  he  was  re- 
fused entrance  to  the  Staff  College,  while  on  the  side 
of  the  Central  powers,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Kaiser 
with  a  withered  arm,  biographers  of  Hindenberg, 

[157] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

founder,  of  the  famous  Hindenberg  line  having  many 
of  the  same  relations  that  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line 
maintained  in  the  Civil  War,  lacked  the  common 
power  of  calculation.  In  the  city  of  Clogan  where 
his  father  was  stationed  as  an  officer,  this  note  may  be 
seen  in  the  school  attended  by  the  great  warrior,  in 
arithmetic  the  dullard  of  the  class.  Martin  Luther 
was  not  strong  on  verbs,  and  he  was  flogged  fifteen 
times  in  one  forenoon  over  one  conjugation.  Another 
one-sided  man  was  Prescott,  the  historian,  who  had 
to  be  wholly  excused  from  geometry.  Distinctly 
proper,  perfect  people  are  never  favorites.  They  never 
get  votes.  The  work  of  the  world  is  not  done  by 
them.  Senator  Gore,  from  Oklahoma,  at  eight,  lost 
one  of  his  organs  of  vision  by  a  blow  from  a  play- 
mate, and  the  other  by  an  arrow  from  a  cross  bow. 
Notwithstanding  this  he  had  to  withdraw  from  his 
earliest  candidacy  for  the  legislature  because  of  his 
minority.  Judge  Quentin  D.  Corley,  Probate  Judge 
of  Douglas  County,  Texas,  has  attained  a  fine 
character,  won  success  as  a  lawyer,  and  distinguished 
himself  as  a  competent  and  efficient  judge,  although 
he  lost  both  hands  in  a  railway  accident  when  he 
was  twenty-one.  We  can  conceive  a  living  man, 
without  an  arm  or  leg,  but  not  without  a  head.  The 
race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong. 
Nature  always  tries,  often  with  great  success,  to 
make  amends  for  all  bodily  imperfections  and  im- 
pediments. Marshal  P.  Wilder,  dropped  by  his 

[158] 


THE  SOUND  AND  ROBUST  HAVE  NO  MONOPOLY 

nurse,  hence  a  dwarf,  became  one  of  the  princes  of 
entertainers,  and  the  entertainer  of  princes,  and 
worth  $100,000. 

The  lame  take  the  prey. 

Edison  recites  the  advantages  of  his  deafness,  as  it  en- 
ables him  to  concentrate  his  thoughts  without  the  dis- 
tractions to  which  others  are  subjected.  Readers  of 
biography  almost  reach  a  point,  where  they  look 
upon  drawbacks  in  early  life  as  necessary  to  future 
greatness.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  overcoming 
difficulties  is  a  training  and  an  education  which  no 
amount  of  mere  scholastic  teaching  can  supply. 
Success  comes  from  the  reserve  mental  energy  which 
all  men  possess.  No  one  thinks  he  has  used  all  the 
mental  energy  he  has,  or  could  have.  "They  say 
best  men  are  moulded  out  of  faults.'* 

There  are  few  persons  living  but  wish  that  their 
color,  their  looks,  or  stature,  or  temperament,  or 
memory,  or  endurance,  or  physical  make-up  was  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  is.  When  a  perfectly  self- 
satisfied,  self-complacent  individual  appears,  he  often 
has,  in  that  fact  alone,  a  defect  that  other  persons 
note  with  revulsion,  and  which  they  pity  most  of  all. 
Imperfect  men,  working  as  evangelists,  gather  the 
ripened  harvests.  Work  on  the  farm  is  done  by 
horses  having  points  that  could  be  improved,  and  the 
best  that  can  be  said  about  the  winners  in  races  is 
that  all  shapes  run.  The  prevalence  of  unsoundness 
would  be  more  obvious  than  it  is,  except  for  the  fact, 
that  much  is  done  to  obscure  these  imperfections,  and 

[159] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

it  is  the  acme  of  all  bad  manners  on  the  part  of  one's 
associates,  to  allude  to  them,  or  draw  the  attention 
of  others  to  them.  A  lady  met  Byron  then  a  little 
child,  out  with  a  nurse,  and  exclaimed  to  her,  "What 
a  pretty  boy.  What  a  pity  he  has  such  a  foot. ' '  The 
words  were  like  the  bite  of  a  serpent  or  the  stroke  of 
a  dagger.  He  shook  his  childish  whip  at  her,  with 
a  passion  of  tears,  and  cried,  "Dinna,  Dinna  speak 
of  it." 

Channing  was  a  chief  factor  in  establishing  one 
of  our  religious  denominations.  He  was  a  great 
force  in  the  world,  and  his  writings  seem  so  mighty 
and  weighty  that  a  person  is  in  no  mood  to  find  that 
he  weighed  but  one  hundred  pounds.  The  reader 
will  not  have  it  so,  and  almost  refuses  to  go  from 
great  effects  to  their  apparently  negligible  cause. 
In  many  homes  Dr.  Theodore  Cuyler  has  supplied  a 
good  share  of  the  religious  nutrition.  His  writings 
once  covered  the  country  like  the  leaves  in  autumn. 
After  a  person  who  loves  devotional  reading  has  left, 
at  a  book  store,  the  order  for  anything  by  Dr.  Cuyler, 
and  has  read  his  pages  by  thousands,  as  his  fugitive 
articles  have  been  given  to  the  world  by  millions,  he 
meets  him  in  the  railway  station. 

Is  that  he? 

How  then  did  he  take  such  fine  large  pictures?  The 
photographers,  unasked,  moved  the  camera  up  close  to 
him.  The  boyhood  of  men  now  living  was  cheered  and 
entertained  by  the  writings  of  the  Burlington  Hawk- 
eye  man,  who  was  more  widely  quoted  than  the 

[160] 


THE  SOUND  AND  ROBUST  HAVE  NO  MONOPOLY 

classics.  He  wrote  a  lecture  about  two  hours  long 
and  was  deemed  by  some  of  the  Lyceum  and  lecture 
bureaus,  as  on  the  whole  the  best  thing  on  the 
market.  When  he  appeared  on  the  platform  before 
a  wondering,  expectant  audience  only  five  feet  three 
inches  in  height,  having  as  he  said  no  voice,  no  pres- 
ence, no  gestures,  no  training  as  a  speaker,  his  pro- 
nounciation  faulty,  and  his  grammar  uncertain,  his 
hearers  approve  the  text,  The  lame  take  the  prey.  For 
this  diminutive  man,  having  entered  the  ministry, 
Sunday  after  Sunday  for  six  years,  crowded  the 
great  auditorium  at  Los  Angeles.  Isaac  Watts  stood 
only  five  feet  and  his  smallness  was  emphasized  by  his 
slendor  form.  But  the  reason  the  lame  take  the  prey 
is  well  told  in  his  familiar  verse,  given  offhand  to  a 
man  who  commented  contemptuously  upon  his  little- 
ness, that  he  must  be  measured  by  his  soul.  The 
mind's  the  stature  of  the  man.  There  is  a  law  of 
compensation  which  provides  that  when  a  person 
cannot  hunt,  cannot  go  actively  afield  and  engage  in 
the  chase,  he  can,  like  the  Shakers  cut  off  from  their 
earlier  means  of  livelihood,  become  peculiarly  suc- 
cessful in  the  manufacture  of  traps.  The  lame  take 
the  prey.  They  get  the  results.  The  Bible  of  a  boy, 
like  the  iron  gate  of  Peter's  prison,  opens  of  its  own 
accord,  to  the  story  of  David  and  Goliath,  in  which 
the  conquest  of  skill  over  mere  rude  strength  is 
described.  The  giant  of  six  cubits  and  a  span  may 
strut  and  boast,  the  well-favored  Apollo  may  be 

[161] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

addled  with  adulation,  but  they  have  no  exclusive 
sure  grip  on  the  prizes.  The  lame  take  the  prey. 
When  Professor  Arminius  Vambery  was  asked  by  the 
Empress  Eugenie  how  he  travelled  through  Asia  with 
a  defective  foot,  he  answered,  "Oh,  your  Majesty, 
one  does  not  walk  on  his  feet,  but  on  his  tongue." 
Those  who  are  lame,  by  a  great  resolve,  otherwise  by 
sheer  necessity,  are  forced  to  wake  up  their  faculties 
and  shake  out  the  talent  hid  in  a  napkin.  This  new 
increment  of  activity,  this  compensation  is  often  so 
marked  as  to  cause  the  sufferer,  like  Saint  Paul,  with 
a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  to  glory  in  his  infirmities.  St. 
Chrysostom  tells  us  that  the  great  apostle  was  "a 
little  man  about  three  cubits  (or  four  feet  and  a  half) 
in  height."  Oh,  I  like  the  Lord  for  that  trans- 
figuration in  human  experience. 

Shine  on,  0  Christ  of  God, 

to  give  us  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of 
God  in  the  face  of  those  Thou  hast  anointed.  If  an 
angel  were  sent  to  find  the  most  perfect  man  he 
would  probably  find  him  in  a  cripple  having  a  lower 
thought  of  himself  than  others  have  of  him.  Timothy, 
whom  Saint  Paul  calls  his  son,  had  notoriously  bad 
health  and  the  apostle  has  drawn  attention  to  his 
often  infirmities,  became  the  youngest  of  the  bishops. 
Here  is  another  element  in  success.  It  is  of  the 
soul,  spontaneous,  outbursting.  The  Cicero  of  Chi- 
cago, the  Chrysostum  of  the  western  pulpit,  exclaims, 
"I  have  been  sick  two  years,  thank  God,"  and  breaks 
out  soon  again,  "I  thank  God  for  my  sickness." 

[162] 


THE  SOUND  AND  ROBUST  HAVE  NO  MONOPOLY 

What,  thankful  for  a  severe,  trying,  painful,  bodily 
limitation?  So  he  said  with  great  emotion,  and  with 
moving  pathos.  A  person  is  not  inclined  to  that 
form  of  expression  unless  it  has  a  meaning.  Jacob's 
sinew  shrank.  He  halted  on  his  thigh.  He  carries 
in  himself  the  memorials  of  conflict.  But,  as  the 
narrative  states,  the  sun  rose  upon  him.  His  name 
was  changed  to  Israel.  We  have  been  made  familiar 
with  the  case  of  Byron,  who  had  a  servant  in  Greece 
whose  name  was  Demetrius,  a  servant  who  above  all 
living  men  was  thought  to  be  a  coward.  Byron,  in 
his  lordly  jollity,  used  to  set  Demetrius  upon  a  crazy 
horse  for  the  purpose  of  laughing  at  his  fears,  and 
Demetrius,  in  very  deed,  would  have  walked  a  mile, 
to  avoid  facing  any  dog  that  ever  barked.  He  was 
a  coward,  and  yet  that  man,  fired  with  patriotic 
ardour,  opening  himself  to  the  inspirations  of 
patriotic  zeal,  led  the  assault  against  Athens,  and 
with  incredible  prowess  delivered  the  city  from  the 
Turks. 

A  new  spring  was  touched. 
Moral  heroism  displaced  physical  fear. 

Living  in  misfortune,  advanced  in  years,  Milton, 
though  blind,  entered  upon  the  composition  of  his 
great  epic  which  was  to  determine  his  future  fame.  In 
six  years  he  had  realized  the  object  of  his  hopes  and 
prayers  by  the  completion  of  Paradise  Lost.  His 
task  was  done.  The  field  of  glory  was  gained.  He 
held  in  his  hand  his  passport  to  immortality.  A 
counterpart  of  this  picture  is  Walter  Scott  at  nearly 

[163] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

the  same  age,  his  private  affairs  in  min,  testing  him- 
self in  a  different  field  from  the  one  in  which  we 
have  seen  him,  undertaking  by  intellectual  labors 
alone  to  liquidate  a  debt  of  $585,000.  Both  tasks  in 
life  may  be  classed  with  the  morally  sublime.  Glory, 
pure  and  unsullied,  was  the  ruling  ambition  and 
motive  of  Milton,  honor  and  integrity  formed  the  in- 
centives to  Scott.  But  they,  the  lame,  take  the 
prey.  Their  aim  was  clear  and  understood,  and 
their  realization  was  exact  and  complete. 

The  world's  superlative  gift  is  affection.  Pity 
is  the  straight  road  to  a  woman's  heart.  "She  Don't 
Care  for  Me."  How  did  ever  this  suggestive  expres- 
sion come  into  use?  Here  one  evidently  designs  to 
affirm  that  no  particular  affection  exists,  and  yet  this 
is  not  what  he  says. 

He  only  denies  the  care. 

The  implication  is — and  its  basis  is  a  deep  principle  in 
human  life — that  when  one  cares  for  another,  nature 
soon  supplies  an  affection.  Unfortunate  mothers 
who  must  give  away  their  children  find  it  easiest  to 
do  so  at  the  child's  birth.  After  a  mother  begins  to 
care  for  the  child  her  affection  takes  hold  and  will 
not  let  go.  The  children  of  wealthy  parents  who  are 
surrounded  by  numbers  of  attendants  and  are  handed 
over  first  from  one  to  another  frequently  grow  up 
with  weak  and  unstable  affections.  Out  of  a  family, 
that  sufferer  is  missed  most,  who  has  made  the  great- 
est demands  upon  a  mother's  sympathy  and  time. 
We  discern  here  a  wise  provision  of  nature.  All  of 

[164] 


THE  SOUND  AND  ROBUST  HAVE  NO  MONOPOLY 

her  tasks  are  to  be  done  in  love.  When  care  com- 
mences love  begins.  And  so  regnant  is  this  principle 
in  human  life  that  its  sway  is  acknowledged  in  one 
of  the  commonest  expressions  of  every-day  life. 
Now  we  cannot  deny  the  care  of  God.  Planning  for 
us  in  His  providence,  and  caring  for  us  daily,  by  a 
law  of  mind  that  prevails  throughout  the  universe, 
we  may  be  assured  that  He  loves  us.  The  working 
of  the  principle  increases  the  sum  of  His  love.  If 
He  cares  for  us  He  loves  us,  and  if  He  loves  He 
cares  for  us. 

And  as  feeble  babes  that  suffer, 

Toss  and  cry,  and  will  not  rest, 
Are  the  ones  the  tender  mother 

Holds  the  closest,  loves  the  best; 
So,  when  we  are  weak  and  wretched, 

By  our  sins  weighed  down,  distressed, 
Then  it  is  that  God's  great  patience 

Holds  us  closest,  loves  us  best. 

Seeing  there  is  so  much  that  is  mysterious  about 
the  life  to  come,  it  is  a  great  comfort  to  be  told 
plainly  that  the  inhabitant  of  that  land  shall  not  say, 
"I  am  sick."  In  the  presence  of  Jesus  the  lame 
walk.  At  His  touch  the  lame  were  healed.  "Oh, 
mother/'  said  a  crippled  boy,  when  they  talked  to 
him  by  his  bedside  of  suffering,  concerning  Heaven, 
''Oh,  mother,  shall  I  be  straight  there?"  And  she 
quieted  him  with  this  text,  "Then  shall  the  lame 
man  leap  as  an  hart,  and  the  tongue  of  the  dumb 
sing. ' ' 

[165] 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
BECOMING  A  LADY 

And  thou  saidst,  I  shall  be  a  lady.    Isa.  47 :  7. 

"It  is  demonstrated  that  the  brain  of  the  man  is 
larger  than  the  brain  of  the  woman,"  said  a  gentle- 
man professor  to  a  class  of  young  ladies  at  school. 
"Now,  what  does  that  prove?"  "It  proved/'  said  a 
bright  member  of  the  class,  "that  the  world  is  gov- 
erned by  quality  and  not  quantity."  Mr.  Stead 
believed  that  the  ruling  influences  come  from  the 
picked  "half  million."  A  man  who  made  a  fortune 
in  purchasing  land  had  as  one  rule,  Buy  quality. 
With  land  or  horses  or  apparel  or  labor  quality  comes 
high.  A  broker  may  deal  in  coarse  commodities,  but 
when  procuring  supplies  for  himself  he  covets 
quality.  The  man  who  developed  The  Concord 
Grape  did  more  for  the  country  than  though  he  had 
paid  the  national  debt.  One  of  his  factors  was  the 
common  wild  grape.  To  the  vigor  of  this,  which 
gave  vitality  at  the  start,  he  added  the  Isabella  to 
get  his  quality.  I  shall  be  a  lady  is  the  expression  of 
the  intensest  desire  of  one's  being  for  excellence. 
In  it  there  is  no  hostility  to  the  nicer  members  of  the 
other  sex.  It  is  not  to  become  a  premature  old 
woman,,  it  is  not  obeisance  to  Mrs.  Grundy  whose 

[166] 


BECOMING  A  LADY 

censorship  admits  one  to  good  society  only  after  a  loss 
of  the  fresh  tone  of  youth,  of  spontaneity,  spirit, 
vivacity,  and  of  individual  charm  as  Samson  shorn 
of  his  locks  was  brought  before  the  lords  of  the 
Philistines  to  make  sport  for  them.  It  is  said  of 
some  nations  that  they  know  no  childhood.  Children 
become  little  men  and  women  as  soon  as  they  can 
flirt  and  strut.  They  think  their  chief  sin  is  their 
youth.  Many  girls  begin  all  too  soon  to  uncon- 
sciously rehearse  for  the  real  drama  to  come  by  and 
by.  Real  quality  cannot  be  hid.  It  is  different. 
There  is  always  a  fine  way  of  doing  a  thing.  It  is  as 
"unconcealable  as  fire."  It  is  not  to  be  bought 
with  a  price.  It  must  grow.  When  a  new  chapter 
opens  in  her  life,  which  harmonizes  with  a  secret 
longing  of  her  nature,  that  she  understands  not,  and 
scarcely  thinks  of  asking  herself  why,  then  is  brought 
to  pass  a  sudden  recognition  of  all  that  she  has  be- 
come. In  all  nations  women  ornament  themselves 
more  than  men. 

The  taste  for  dress, 

a  graceful  decoration  of  the  person,  is,  to  a  certain  de- 
gree, instinctive  and  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  it 
ought  to  be  wholly  repressed.  A  person  cannot  begin 
the  refinement  of  this  taste  too  early.  Its  lack  of 
previous  cultivation  is  seen  in  the  "new  rich,"  who 
put  on  such  outstanding  colors  as  we  associate  with 
savages.  "Too  much  adult"  according  to  one  judge 
is  the  bane  of  growing  girls.  They  have  a  right  to 

[167] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

be  just  girls,  until  they  get  their  color,  their  apple- 
cheek  bloom,  their  health,  their  taste,  their  intelli- 
gence, their  pretty  manners,  their  ideal.  It  is 
sometimes  said  of  a  man,  he  missed  his  calling.  It 
will  be  probably  said  of  you  if  you  attempt  to 
become  another  Joan  of  Arc.  This  gallant  young 
maid,  mounted  on  a  fiery  steed,  rallied  a  disheartened 
army  and  under  adverse  conditions,  led  it  to  vic- 
tory, and  raised  the  siege  of  Orleans.  She  is  the 
finest  character  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  France  and  by 
conquests  and  abilities  rose  from  a  peasant's  hut  to 
a  royal  palace.  While  conceding  her  excellencies, 
she  is  devoid  of  that  loveliness  and  of  those  feminine 
qualities  which  the  world  has  come  to  associate  with 
the  members  of  the  better  sex.  We  are  all,  men  and 
women,  better  for  the  little  attentions,  for  the 
courtesies,  the  feeling  of  chivalry  toward  ladies,  the 
gallantries  which  give  them  the  best  seats  and 
priority  everywhere.  It  is  not  unearned  nor  unde- 
served. The  public  schools,  so  an  educational  writer 
affirms,  are  inadequately  supplied  with  womanly 
ideals.  He  finds  that  a  majority  of  young  women 
hold  to  masculine  aims,  that  a  large  per  cent.,  openly 
assert  they  would  prefer  to  be  men.  When  the  boys 
go  off  to  college  or  to  enter  business,  the  girls  feel 
that  they  are  without  an  equal  incentive.  It  is 
exactly  at  this  stage  of  their  lives  that  ladyship,  the 
eternal  feminine,  exemplified  at  its  best,  should  be 
made  attractively  to  engage  their  attention. 

[168] 


BECOMING  A  LADY 

In  the  battle  of  Monmouth  where  Washington 
seems  more  distinctly  human  than  elsewhere  in  his 
career,  an  American  gunner  was  killed,  with  no  one 
competent  to  take  his  place.  Accordingly  that  piece 
of  artillery  was  ordered  removed.  But  the  gunner's 
wife,  aged  22, 

Dropped  the  bucket, 

with  which  she  was  carrying  water  to  the  soldiers  and 
worked  the  gun  with  both  skill  and  courage.  Next 
morning  she  was  presented,  by  General  Greene,  to 
Washington,  who  was  so  pleased  with  her  bravery  that 
he  gave  her  a  commission  and  had  her  name  put  on  the 
pay  list  for  life.  And  the  fame  of  Molly  Pitcher  per- 
vaded the  army  and  country.  Six  women  have  won 
commissions  in  our  military  service.  One  girl  at 
thirteen  enlisted  as  drummer  boy.  Another  girl  at 
fourteen,  and  one  at  sixteen,  went  to  the  front  and 
deported  themselves  gallantly,  but  even  their  martyr 
spirit,  exhibited  in  this  form,  does  not  seem  to  im- 
press us  as  ideal. 

When  men  were  supine  and  drunkeries  were 
lawless  and  defiant,  with  good  purpose  and  indom- 
itable spirit,  in  Kansas,  a  woman  took  the  law  and 
hatchet  into  her  own  hands  and  hewed  her  way 
right  through  the  saloons  into  national  and  world- 
wide fame.  But  in  those  same  days,  escorted  by 
groups  of  children,  contesting  with  one  another,  the 
right  to  have  a  side,  that  is  the  privilege  to  walk  next 
to  her,  on  the  way  to  school,  the  young  lady  teacher 

[169] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

was  threading  the  streets  and  the  country  turnpikes 
doing  an  office  an  angel  might  covet.  She  inspired 
the  young  spirits  whom  she  taught  with  the  evil  and 
waste  of  the  saloon,  and  as  soon  as  these  youths  could 
take  time  to  grow  up  they  made  themselves  felt  and 
put  the  saloon  in  most  localities  out  of  commission. 
Plant  your  reforms  in  the  schools.  And  we  are  able 
to  designate  politicians  who  were  repairing  their 
fences  and  overlooking  what  was  going  on  in  the 
schools,  who  do  not  to  this  day  know  how,  in  the 
matter  of  temperance  sentiment,  the  revolution  hap- 
pened. The  saloon  is  not  only  doomed,  but  the  form 
of  the  handwriting  on  the  wall,  is  ladylike.  The 
teacher  did  it,  yet  her  mission  is  to  spare  her  delicacy. 
Her  spirit,  however,  is  not  abated. 
A  lady  is  a  lady 

in  every  land.  Sweeping  through  her  life  is  the  cur- 
rent of  a  great  purpose.  It  concentrates  every 
energy  and  it  gives  her  power.  She  reveals  the  way 
to  interest  others,  and  to  become  in  one's  self, 
interesting.  It  is  to  be  intensely  interested.  A 
smashade,  only  by  an  individual,  of  Carrie  Nation 
type,  must  be  local  and  limited.  But  a  ground  swell 
of  sentiment  can  be  best  occasioned  by  the  intelli- 
gence, the  resolution,  and  the  lovely  influence  of  the 
comely,  carefully  educated,  well-groomed  teacher 
whose  precepts  so  dominate  her  scholars  that  their 
hearts  incline  them  to  say,  whatever  the  teacher  says, 
goes.  And  that  teacher  is  more  magnetic  and  in- 

[170] 


BECOMING  A  LADY 

fluential  and  effective  than  she  would  ever  become  as 
an  imitation  man.  Many  women  in  England  seem  to 
be  overwhelmed  with  regret  at  not  being  born  men. 
They  seem  to  spend  their  time  and  ingenuity  in  at- 
tempting to  atone  for  Nature's  mistake.  Their  hats 
and  gloves  and  stout  shoes  and  swinging  gait,  with 
hands  thrust  into  the  pockets  of  their  ulsters  are  the 
same  as  the  men's.  As  much  as  possible  some  mas- 
culine garment  is  taken  and  draped  and  adapted  to 
the  female  figure.  This  is  a  reform  against  Nature 
which  decrees  that  with  advancing  civilization  the 
sexes  shall  not  approximate,  but  differentiate. 

Becoming  a  lady  does  not  aim  at  what  the  Eng- 
lish style  fine  ladyism  of  the  Flora  McFlimsey  type. 
This  languid,  useless,  showy,  human  flower  or  but- 
terfly seems  born  only  to  flutter  in  the  sunshine  and 
court  attention.  This  counterfeit  takes  great  pride, 
like  the  male  members  of  the  savage  race,  in  the 
smallness  and  unused  look  of  her  hands.  Fine  lady- 
ism,  marked  chiefly  by  leisure  and  social  display,  uses 
the  word  lady  as  it  is  in  grammar,  the  feminine  cor- 
relative of  the  word  lord.  Some  boys  felt  that  the 
word  lady,  as  thus  used,  did  not  meet  their  need, 
when  they  voted  that  Miss  Blank  was  a  gentleman 
and  by  them  a  lady  has  just  been  characterized  as  a 
perfect  gentleman.  Dr.  McKenzie,  of  Cambridge,  an 
orator,  in  setting  out  an  ideal  for  the  emulation  of 
girls  could  not  lead  them  toward  fine  ladyship,  ex- 
onerated from  the  duties  of  life,  as  there  is  no  neces- 
sary relation  between  weakness  and  beauty,  urged 

[171] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

them  to  acquire  the  qualities  of  a  perfect  gentleman. 
On  a  very  recent  occasion  the  President  of  a  co- 
educational college  desiring  to  find  seats  for  a  large 
group  of  undergraduates  said,  from  the  platform, 
those  "  women  standing  near  the  door  can  find  seats 
at  the  front. "  The  word  woman  is  now  often  ap- 
plied in  educational  circles  to  those  not  certainly  out 
of  their  teens.  It  is  this  villainous  reference  in  fine 
ladyship  to  rank  and  ease  of  circumstance,  to  a  draw- 
ing room  doll,  the  feminine  of  dolt,  that  starts  our 
ingenuity  to  characterize  in  a  word,  those  fine- 
natured  women,  who  are 

Far  ahead  of  their  brothers 

and  husbands  in  refinement  and  culture  who  raise 
the  tone  of  the  family,  and  give  us  back  in  reflection, 
what  we  see  in  their  mothers,  not  in  the  old  form, 
but  in  the  old  loveliness,  with  a  modern,  ideal  setting. 
Their  counsels  are  always  for  the  better  way,  no  mat- 
ter what  the  dangers  and  difficulties  to  be  en- 
countered. Mr.  Selfridge,  the  American  owner  of 
the  largest  department  store  in  London,  gives  us  to 
understand,  that  since  the  nation  entered  the  world 
war,  that  the  languid,  lounging,  soulless  dead  weight 
women  that  constituted  the  fine  ladyism  of  a  former 
type,  eating  the  bread  of  idleness,  lolling  in  the  lap 
of  luxury,  taking  it  easy,  has  lost  caste  such  as  used 
to  exist,  when  it  was  said  that  every  man's  foot  was 
on  the  neck  of  the  man  next  below  him  and  his  knee 
bent  to  the  man  above  him.  Nothing  to  do  is  no 
longer  good  form  for  those  to  whose  lot  fall  the 

[172] 


BECOMING  A  LADY 

must-be-dones.  The  brain  activity  of  women  has 
been  stimulated  beyond  all  example.  Conversation 
has  become  something  more  than  the  old  ceaseless 
repetition  of  commonplaces  which,  like  music  boxes, 
could  be  wound  up  to  play  their  set  of  tunes  and  then 
they  stop.  The  set  consists  of  only  two  or  three 
tunes  at  most.  There  is  now  no  mistaking  idleness 
for  refinement.  Caste  and  rank  are  dissolved  and 
blended  in  a  true  democracy  of  labor  and  the  intel- 
lect is  kindled  or  fanned  to  brighter  flame. 

Strangely  the  Scriptures  nowhere  command 
marriage,  but  with  infinite  pains  recognize  and  bless 
and  guard  it. 

The  affections  blossom  in  the  teens. 
They  are  universal  and  almost  omnipotent.    If  we 
may  judge  by    all-around    indications    there    is   no 
girl's  paradise  without  an  Adam  nor  boy's  without 
an  Eve. 

The  heart,  like  the  tendril  accustomed  to  cling, 
Let  it  grow  where  it  will,  cannot  flourish  alone. 

But  will  lean  to  the  nearest  and  loveliest  thing 
It  can  twine  with  itself  and  make  closely  its  own. 

The  fault  with  the  world  is  not  that  there  is  not 
affection  enough,  but  that  it  is  not  properly  directed. 
" Never  marry  but  for  love,"  said  William  Penn, 
1  'but  see  thou  lovest  what  is  lovely."  We  sometimes 
have  in  mating  the  game  of  blind  man's  bluff,  only 
that  in  husband  catching  both  parties  are  blinded, 
they  blind  themselves  and  then  blind  each  other  and 

[173] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

go  it  blind  until  the  mask  and  disguise  and  illusion 
later  fall  away.  Cupid  is  pictured  with,  his  eyes 
heavily  bandaged,  and  our  complaint  is  that  he  thus 
proceeds  with  his  archery.  No  compulsion  whatever 
was  used  in  bringing  either  party  to  the  altar.  And 
both  had  grown  to  years  of  discretion.  Marriage  is 
of  one's  own  choosing  or  consent.  There  are  some 
things  on  the  contrary  that  we  do  not  determine. 
But  in  the  matter  of  that  tremendous,  untried  ex- 
periment, which,  whether  it  succeed  or  not,  has  to  be 
kept  to  when  once  undertaken,  we  must  take  all  the 
responsibility.  We  are  not  responsible  for  our  ex- 
istence. We  do  not  determine  the  color  of  our  eyes. 
We  cannot  add  a  cubit  to  our  stature,  but  in  mating 
we  make  a  selection  and  then  are  required  by  our  own 
adult  act  to  stand  by  our  choice.  Is  marriage,  then, 
a  failure?  Yes,  when  the  husband  is  a  tyrant. 
Your  mistake  is  remediless.  You  may  hide  your  dis- 
appointment as  the  stricken  bird  covers  its  wound 
with  its  wings,  but  the  anguish  will  not  cease  to  make 
itself  felt  though  you  may  hide  it  in  a  bruised  and 
bleeding  heart  to  the  last. 

Marriage  is  a  failure 

when  either  party  marries  for  money  only.  Money 
is  not  everything.  Heaven  forbid  a  woman  to  sell 
herself  for  a  mess  of  pottage,  and  a  rich  woman 
makes  a  poor  investment  when  she  buys  a  husband. 
The  astounding  worldliness  that  exists  causes  people 
to  cultivate  for  acquaintances  and  friends  those  only 
"who  can  do  us  good."  Marriage  is  a  failure  when 

[174] 


BECOMING  A  LADY 

a  young  lady  marries  a  man  to  reform  him.  The 
marriage  service  does  not  read,  Do  you  take  this 
man  whom  you  hold  by  the  hand  to  love,  cherish, 
and  reform?  Why  should  a  girl  without  any  ex- 
perience in  the  matter,  attempt  to  conduct  a  Keely 
Institute?  Woe  to  a  woman  who,  having  loved,  not 
wisely  but  too  well,  finds  herself  linked  to  such  a 
man  in  bonds  too  close.  For  now  the  rowers  are 
pausing  on  their  oars.  They  wait  a  change  before 
they  can  pull  together.  Marriage  is  a  failure  when 
the  husband  is  engaged  in  a  business  that  is  not 
approved  by  the  wife.  When  it  is  a  last  resort.  You 
are  not  born  into  the  world  only  to  be  married. 
When  a  woman  takes  a  husband  only  for  the  sake 
of  having  one  it  is  a  vine  around  a  tree,  and  if  the 
tree  decays  or  is  weak  and  falls  down,  it  brings  the 
vine  into  the  dust.  Such  a 

Husband  is  a  great  inconvenience. 
When  a  woman  acts  as  if  she  had  stepped  down 
from  a  pedestal  to  marry  "him."  That  expression 
may  seem  ungallant  but  attracted  by  the  scent  of 
the  roses  growing  on  it,  a  blind  man  may  be  in- 
capable of  seeing  the  wall,  he  is  going  to  run 
his  head  against.  When  she  knows  more  of  com- 
plexion powder  than  she  does  of  baking  powder. 
Such  a  marriage  ought  to  be  proscribed  by  public 
statute.  He  begins  to  complain  of  heartburn  and 
they  both  attribute  it  to  affection,  but  it  proves  to 
be  dyspepsia.  When  the  husband  takes  his  wife  into 

[175] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

his  confidence  only  long  enough  to  tell  her  that  he 
is  not  making  any  money  now.  If  anyone  attacks 
the  gentler  sex,  as  a  sex,  any  woman  will  arise  and 
defend  the  sex;  but  if  anyone  attacks  any  individual 
member  of  the  sex,  every  woman  will  leave  her  to 
defend  herself.  If  you  attack  his  sex,  as  a  sex,  a 
man  will  say  nothing;  but  attack  an  individual  mem- 
ber of  the  sex  and  nearly  every  man  will  have  some 
excuse  to  offer  for  his  shortcoming.  Is  marriage 
a  failure  ?  Yes,  when  a  man  persists  in  arguing  over 
a  matter,  on  which,  on  account  of  a  temporary  men- 
tal difference  he  and  his  wife  never  think  quite  alike 
and  never  have  thought  quite  alike,  and  on  this  mat- 
ter, never  will  think  quite  alike,  and  it  is  not  at 
all  important  that  they  should  think  alike.  I  abom- 
inate a  woman  who,  when  asked  what  she  thinks, 
has  only  to  say,  "I  think  just  what  my  husband 
thinks."  That  is  not  harmony. 

It  is  stupidity. 

There  is  no  conversation,  only  monologue.  When 
a  person  wants  harmony  and  goes  to  the  keyboard 
he  does  not  keep  striking  one  key.  That  is  monotony. 
It  is  tedium.  It  is  weariness.  Real  harmony  comes 
from  striking  the  different  notes  in  an  octave.  Har- 
mony consists  in  diversity  no  less  than  in  likeness 
if  only  the  same  keynote  governs  both  parts.  As 
two  harmonious  notes  struck  in  unison  on  a  per- 
fectly tuned  instrument,  will  not  only  sound  them- 
selves but  will  set  in  vibration  a  third,  and  thus 

[176] 


BECOMING  A  LADY 

complete  the  accord,  so  the  unison  of  the  first  mem- 
bers of  a  family  will  extend  to  the  guest  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  such  a  home.  A  party  of  travelers 
lately  visited  a  lonely  hut  on  a  mountain.  There 
they  found  a  woman  who  told  them  that  she  and 
her  husband  had  lived  there  forty  years.  Why,  they 
said,  did  you  choose  so  barren  a  spot?  She  did  not 
know.  "It  was  the  man's  notion."  During  forty 
years  she  had  been  content  to  exist  without  the  mood 
or  spirit  to  talk  things  over,  to  ascertain  the  purpose 
of  life. 

Private  Peet  having  returned  from  the  world 
war,  tells  of  the  fallen  in  battle  who  on  recovering 
themselves  a  bit  are  always  trying  to  crawl  forward 
and  so  creep  into  the  enemy's  ground.  One  soldier, 
under  these  conditions,  was  thoughtfully  turned 
around  by  his  comrade,  who  left  him  at  last  with 
the  caution:  "You  are  in  the  right  direction;  don't 
turn  round."  A  girl  fixes  her  ideal,  I  shall  be 
a  lady.  You  are  in  the  right  direction;  don't  turn 
round.  There  is  a  beautiful  little  animal  found  in 
both  continents,  called  the  ermine,  whose  fur  is  so 
famed  for  its  unblemished  whiteness  that  it  has  been 
taken  as  the  emblem  of  incorruptibility.  The  dainty 
little  creature  makes  it  the  business  of  its  life  to 
keep  itself  clean.  It  is  so  inclined  by  native  instinct 
to  immaculateness  that  it  will  suffer  capture  or  wel- 
come death  rather  than  defilement.  Knowing  this, 
trappers  and  others  seeking  its  fur  will  besmear 

[177] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

the  paths  it  might  take ;  and,  true  to  instinct,  it  keeps 
itself  unspotted,  though  it  yields  its  life.  Its  atti- 
tude is  not,  "I  must  live,"  but, 

"I  must  keep  myself  pure." 

If  in  an  exigency  it  were  left  to  decide  upon  the  de- 
sirability of  cleanliness,  so  small  a  creature  might 
weaken;  but  stainlessness  is  ingrained  into  its  very 
nature,  and  even  when  hunted  its  purpose  is  first  to 
be  untainted. 

So  sweet  and  natural  a  thing  among  women 
is  it  to  be  devout,  so  elevating  to  the  nature,  that 
a  godless  woman,  seems  to  have  no  light  in  her  and 
no  glory  proceeding  from  her.  All  men,  even  the 
irreverent,  love  to  read  in  the  fine,  feminine  face, 
as  Longfellow  says,  "The  divine  beatitude,  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart. " 


[178] 


CHAPTER  XIX 
AN  INVENTORY  OF  WHAT  WE  HAVE 

Tell  me,  what  hast  thou  in  the  house?     II  Kings  4:  2. 

I  believe  that  there  are  those  gathered  here  that 
shall  not  taste  death  until  they  see  the  Kingdom  of 
God  come  with  power.  In  the  currents  of  the  world's 
life  and  thought  and  purpose  we  are  approaching 
a  crisis.  The  lines  of  action  seem  converging  into 
a  consummation.  We  are  in  a  changing  world  and 
great  forces  are  abroad,  animated  by  a  common  soul. 
The  whole  earth  is  in  motion.  A  new  security  seems 
destined  for  the  little  nations.  It  is  a  rebirth  of 
civilization.  The  newspaper  informs  us  daily  that 
we  are  turning  a  critical  corner,  and  that  many 
things  now  in  vogue  will  come  to  a  full  period.  We 
have  not  yet  reached  the  end  of  human  improve- 
ment. True  to  history  the  Lord  may  come  suddenly 
to  his  temple.  In  the  life  of  those  now  upon  the 
earth  more  than  one  nation  may  be  born  in  a  day 
and  reforms  for  which  men  have  long  prayed  and 
sacrificed  may  gladden  the  earth,  as  the  aloe  bursts 
into  bloom  in  a  night,  after  living  for  a  hundred 
years  in  a  state  of  preparation.  Many  men  who  will 
be  influential  in  repairing  and  rebuilding  the  foot- 
stool will  be  graduates  of  what  we  may  call,  for  want 

[179] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

of  a  name,  Khaki  College,  a  school  of  discipline  in 
which  one  man  takes  orders  from  another  whom  he 
has  never  seen  and  the  obedience  would  have  been 
the  same  if  the  conditions  had  been  reversed,  and 
the  one  giving  the  orders  had  been  the  person  to 
receive  them.  Now  in  such  work  it  is  seldom  that 
a  man  distinguishes  himself  except  in  one  thing.  It 
is  not  only  great  good  fortune,  it  is  nature's  badge 
of  success.  If  a  person  finds  he  is  born  with  a  bias, 
a  bent,  a  forte,  it  is  like  saying  that  he  has  from  a 
divine  All-wise  hand  his  allotment,  his  assignment. 

Tell  me,  What  hast  thou  in  the  house  ?    No  other 
reply  has  such  significance  as  this, 
I  have  an  aptitude. 

Then  you  have  a  calling.  Your  attention  is  drawn 
thus  to  the  fact  that  you  are  called,  called  of  Gcd, 
called  according  to  His  purpose.  Out  of  this 
you  speak  of  the  choice  of  your  profession.  That 
does  not  express  the  full  fact.  That  not  only 
shows  your  choice.  It  indicates  that  you  are  the 
chosen.  Let  us  hope  that  the  bias  is  irresistibly 
strong.  A  relative  was  sitting  in  a  buggy  in  front 
of  a  store  when  a  child  called  out  "  Mother, "  and 
the  woman  said  ''What."  She  had  the  sway  of  a 
natural  bias.  Looking  around  instinctively  she  saw 
a  little  ragmuffin,  with  soiled  face  who  was  no  child 
of  hers.  Nature's  bias  or  bent  makes  you  individual. 
This  is  what  makes  men  so  different.  They  are 
similar  like  the  mountains,  yet  they  are  unlike  as 
the  mountains  of  which  some  are  higher,  some  are 

[180] 


AN   INVENTORY   OF   WHAT   WE   HAVE 

peaks,  some  rounded,  while  some  have  a  surface  torn 
by  some  awful  contortion.  The  elder  Mr.  Latrobe, 
an  eminent  member  of  the  Baltimore  Bar,  had  two 
promising  sons,  in  whom  he  thought  he  saw  very 
clearly  the  indications  for  distinct  professional  lives. 
One  with  a  mathematical  turn  he  destined  for  West 
Point,  and  secured  his  appointment  as  cadet.  The 
other  seemed  precisely  adapted  to  the  law,  and  after 
his  graduation  at  college  he  studied  in  his  father's 
office,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  soon  after  his 
brother  entered  the  army.  But  a  few  years  de- 
veloped this  singular  change.  The  West  Point 
graduate  did  not  like  army  life,  and  therefore  re- 
signed, studied  law,  and  became  eminent  in  his  pro- 
fession. The  other  son,  who  had  been  trained  to 
law,  did  not  like  his  profession,  retired  from  it,  and 
became  the  distinguished  civil  engineer  who  con- 
structed the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  across  the 
Alleghany  Mountains.  Who  did  the  calling  in  the 
case  of  these  young  men? 

Not  the  father. 

Were  the  young  men  consulted  on  their  allotment? 
Not  in  any  degree.  It  inspires  awe  to  trace  a  calling  to 
its  source.  To  have  no  mistake  about  its  kind  or 
its  author  it  is  written  deeply  in  the  very  nature 
of  an  individual  who  differs  out  to  the  limit  from 
his  own  brother,  born  of  the  same  parents.  A  mixed 
brood  of  fowl,  hatched  by  the  same  unsuspecting 
mother  were  being  clucked  along  the  margin  of  a 
pond  where  they  separated,  the  ducks  from  the 

[181] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

chicks  and  traveled  in  different  companies.  They 
were  almost  human  in  their  behavior. 

Tell  me,  What  hast  thou  in  the  house? 

Have  you  faith  in  your  jobf 

That  is  an  augment.  Nothing  blights  a  man  like  a 
weakening  faith  in  his  appointed  task.  No  man  is 
at  his  best  if  he  thinks  lightly  of  his  work  and  doubts 
if  it  is  worth  while. 

Have  you  an  understanding  of  the  times?  The 
last  minister  of  the  interior  in  Russia  told  nearly 
the  whole  truth  when  he  said  to  a  representative  of 
the  Associated  Press  who  visited  him  in  prison,  that 
his  crime  consisted  of  "not  understanding  the  spirit 
of  my  age."  We  may  as  well  say  plainly,  even  to 
the  most  talented  young  man  that  if  he  fails,  at  this 
single  point,  he  is  doomed.  There  is  a  force,  related 
on  the  one  side  to  the  mind  of  the  Deity,  and  on 
the  other  side  the  present  advanced  stage  of  prog- 
ress in  the  world,  which  must  be  reckoned  with  or 
be  at  once  out  of  the  running.  This  genius  of  our 
day  is  to  prevail.  The  spirit  of  revenge  goes  with 
savages.  Their  day  is  done.  Their  race  is  over. 

Tell  me,  What  hast  thou  in  the  house?  A 
miracle,  such  as  is  suggested  by  the  text,  always  be- 
gins with  something.  Here  it  was  a  condition  of 
poverty.  It  is  often  spoken  of  as  an  inconvenience, 
a  hindrance,  and  thus  is  made  a  weak  excuse, 
whereas  a  triumph  over  it  is  like  graduating  with 
honor  from  West  Point.  It  is  a  certificate  of  worthy 
labor,  faithfully  performed.  About  the  finest  thing 

[182] 


AN   INVENTORY   OF   WHAT   WE   HAVE 

written  by  Dr.  Johnson  is  his  Rasselas,  and  it  is 
only  produced  that  he  might  raise  money  to  bury 
his  mother.  Mrs.  Trollope  was  left  a  widow,  with 
a  brood  of  children,  whom  she  desired  to  keep  to- 
gether, and  though  she  was  in  middle  life,  she  took 
to  authorship,  to  provide  for  their  daily  wants  and 
wrote  half  a  hundred  romances  which  made  her 
famous.  Two  great  forces  that  incite  men  to  work 
are 

Ambition  and  famine. 

Napoleon  believed  that  the  greatest  problem  for  men 
to  solve  is  the  question  of  bread.  Much  that  we  do  is 
from  mixed  motives.  Make  all  the  men  in  one  state 
independent  and  half  of  them  would  very  soon  become 
non-productive.  Has  poverty  ever  robbed  you  of  a 
single  intellectual  power  ?  Has  it  closed  your  heart,  or 
damped  your  purpose,  or  brought  any  disfavor  with 
heaven,  or  with  your  self-respect?  Has  it  not  rather 
at  times  proved  a  main  spring,  an  inducement,  a 
secret  motive,  a  whip,  a  persuasion! 

Tell  me,  What  hast  thou  in  the  house?  An 
object  may  be  found  there  at  times  that  bars  more 
men  from  success  than  poverty.  It  is  vividly  pic- 
tured in  that  Book  of  books  which  has  been  called 
The  Memoirs  of  God,  t '  the  measuring  line. ' '  We  find 
that  a  wave  of  feeling  had  passed  over  a  young  man's 
nature.  In  his  heart  was  a  passionate  faith.  In- 
visible things  became  visible.  Why  is  thy  counte- 
nance sad,  seeing  thou  art  not  sick?  While  at  duty, 
a  cup  in  his  hand,  in  the  presence  of  the  king, 

[183] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

silently,  but  with  his  soul  in  it  he  "prayed  to  the 
God  of  Heaven. "  Here  is  a  picturesque  study  of 
an  ideal  where  faculty  and  sudden  opportunity 
unite.  To  make  the  typical  case  complete  a  chance 
to  repair  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  and  rebuild  the 
gates  is  offered  to  the  unlikely  person,  a  work  of 
mechanics,  of  construction  to  a  cup-bearer.  But  for 
entire  naturalness  the  last  stroke  is  a  climax.  I 
lifted  up  my  eyes  and  looked  and  beheld  a  man  with 
a  measuring  line.  He  typifies,  the  scholars  say,  the 
same  individual  that  had  the  acute  vision.  A  great 
population  was  found  outside  of  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem.  The  vision  is  antagonized  by  mechan- 
ical difficulties.  The  issue  is  joined.  Calculation  is 
squarely,  definitely,  actively  opposed  to  the  vision. 
Which  shall  prevail,  an  ideal,  or  sober  calculation? 
Which  is  preferable?  Which  is  most  often  at  fault? 

Which  is  more  trustworthy? 

Calculation  must  most  frequently  fail,  for  the  reason 
that  it  cannot  tell  what  sublime  possibilities  are,  for 
example,  in  a  young  girl  until  the  spiritual  awakening 
takes  place.  The  mother  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
at  eighteen  was  a  gay,  trifling,  frivolous  girl,  living  for 
pleasure,  for  dress,  for  society.  By  what  seemed  al- 
most an  accident,  she  attended  one  evening  a  revival 
meeting  conducted  by  some  traveling  Baptist  evan- 
gelists. She  went,  as  usual,  to  have  a  good  time  with 
her  companions  at  the  expense  of  the  Christians. 
But  something  in  that  meeting,  fired  the  electric 

[184] 


AN  INVENTORY   OF   WHAT   WE   HAVE 

train  and  roused  the  spiritual  fervor  of  her  nature. 
The  unseen  and  eternal,  became  vivid  and  real  to 
her.  She  awoke!  She  saw  the  glory  of  Christ,  and 
at  once,  then  and  there,  became  worthy  to  be  the 
mother  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison.  She  had  in  her 
the  elements  of  a  lofty,  earnest,  religious  character 
and  she  cast  herself  on  God  alone.  Reach  hither  the 
measuring  line.  There  is  a  mysterious  factor  to 
whom  it  must  be  applied,  which  is  God.  All  things 
were  made  by  him.  Who  can  take  the  measure  when 
it  is  no  longer  I,  but  Christ  that  dwelleth  in  me? 
Calculation  is  lame.  It  falls  down.  The  power  of 
the  invisible  does  not  submit  to  measure. 

Who  is  that  boy  there  in  a  back  yard  picking 
up  chips?  A  sea  captain  comes  along  and  asks, 
"Want  to  be  a  sailor?"  and  the  boy,  Edward,  drops 
the  chip  basket,  not  tarrying  to  bid  his  foster  mother 
good-bye.  At  seventeen  he  could  not  read.  From 
the  ship  he  drifted  into  Boston,  heard  the  bell  of  the 
Park  Street  church.  Dr.  Griffin  was  giving  out  his 
text,  "But  he  lied  unto  him."  Tears  ran  down  the 
sailor's  face.  He  was  melted.  Why  can't  I  preach 
so.  I  will  try  it.  Dr.  Griffin  was  the  last  word  in 
scholarship.  He  became  the  president  of  a  New 
England  college.  Notice  that  word  "so"  in  the 
ideal.  It  stands  for  effectiveness. 

Reach  hither  the  measuring  line. 
Apply  it  to  a  man  with  acute  vision  who  cannot  even 
read.    He  does  not  measure  up,  is  the  verdict  of  cal- 

[185] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

culation.  Now  which  is  wrong,  ideal  or  calculation? 
He  became  the  Booth  of  the  Boston  pulpit.  He  was  so 
earnest  and  convincing  that  it  is  related  of  him  that 
while  vividly  describing  a  sinful  soul  drifting  toward 
shipwreck,  a  sailor  in  the  congregation,  forgetting 
where  he  was,  cried  out,  "Let  go  your  best  bower 
anchor,  or  you're  lost."  Jenny  Lind  was  delighted 
with  Father  Taylor  and  so  was  Charles  Dickens.  "I 
repeat,  and  would  dwell  upon  it,"  said  Walt  Whit- 
man, "that  among  all  the  brilliant  lights  of  bar  or 
stage  I  have  heard  in  my  time — for  years  in  New  York 
and  other  cities  I  haunted  the  courts  to  witness  notable 
trials  and  have  heard  all  the  famous  actors  and  ac- 
tresses that  have  been  in  America  the  past  fifty  years 
— though  I  recall  marvelous  effects  from  one  or  other 
of  them,  I  never  had  anything  in  the  way  of  vocal  ut- 
terance to  shake  me  through  and  become  fixed,  with  its 
accompaniments,  in  my  memory,  like  these  prayers 
and  sermons  —  like  Father  Taylor's  personal  elec- 
tricity and  the  whole  scene  there,  in  the  little  old 
sea  church  in  Boston."  "I  located  my  Bethel  in 
North  Square  because  I  learned  to  set  my  net  where 
the  fish  ran."  Apply  the  measuring  line.  It  would 
apply  to  a  man's  library,  but  it  would  not  give  an 
estimate  of  Father  Taylor.  It  could  put  a  man  in 
a  class,  in  the  university,  as  senior  wrangler,  but 
that  would  have  almost  no  bearing  on  his  subsequent 
career.  Very  few  of  our  ablest  men  would  have 
met  the  measures  of  the  senior  wranglers.  The  man 

[186] 


AN   INVENTORY   OF   WHAT   WE    HAVE 

with  the  measuring  line  gathers  a  lot  of  statistics. 
Disraeli  said  there  were 

Three  kinds  of  lies. 

They  are  stated  by  him,  in  such  nervous  language  that 
they  cannot  be  quoted  here,  but  the  last  kind,  and 
worst  of  all,  was  statistics.  At  the  court  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  how  fortunate  for  Columbus  that  no  man 
was  there  with  some  statistics.  It  would  have  been 
a  calamity  to  Eli  Whitney  or  Cyrus  Field  or  Leland 
Stanford  if  in  opposition  to  them  a  man  had  ap- 
peared with  a  few  statistics.  St.  Paul  felt  the 
supreme  importance  of  the  individual  initiative,  and 
his  chief  fear  was  lest  he  should  build  upon  another 
man's  foundation.  One  of  the  most  striking  sen- 
tences to  be  found  in  any  biography  is  in  the  life  of 
Dr.  Constans  L.  Goodell,  "his  conversion  made  him." 
There  is  no  comparison,  it  is  a  contrast,  between  his 
work  before  and  after  his  revival  experience.  He 
came  to  have  the  gifts  that  universities  cannot  be- 
stow, the  current  coin  that  cannot  be  counterfeited, 
the  prophet's  vision,  the  poet's  fancy,  the  light  of 
genius.  After  this  inner  nature  was  all  lighted  up 
he  wrote  one  of  the  gems  of  our  literature,  Outriding 
a  cyclone  at  sea.  Hand  us  the  measuring  line.  Here 
calculation  gives  the  lie  to  even  calculation.  They 
are  bitterly  antagonistic.  Call  the  roll  of  discoverers 
and  inventors.  What  appears?  The  ideal  and  the 
measuring  line,  which  is  calculation,  are  mutually 

[187] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

destructive.      Look    over    your    associates    and    ac- 
quaintances. 

"Ah  him!" 

Discouragement  fell  early  upon  him.  His  genius  was 
blighted.  His  life  was  poisoned.  He  lifted  up  his  eyes 
and  looked,  and  behold  a  man  with  a  measuring  line  in 
his  hand,  and  when  calculation  piled  one  difficulty 
upon  another,  he  lost  faith  in  himself  and  in  his  work. 
He  felt  the  divine  Ought  in  his  soul,  but  calculation 
said  that  the  thing  he  ought  to  do  could  not  be  done 
and  he  became  disheartened  and  felt  that  there  was  no 
further  use  in  trying.  The  ideal  is  the  active  force  in 
life.  It  is  an  ideal  that  gives  individual  initiative. 
When  his  ideal,  the  best  thing  in  him,  the  only  fac- 
tor that  would  sustain  exertion,  died  out  it  left  him 
hopeless,  passionless,  disappointed.  Henceforth  to  be 
only  an  observer  of  other  people's  attainments  and 
successes.  His  associates  have  gone  on  and  left  him. 
He  has  lost  heart.  Even  the  Deity  cannot  use  a  dis- 
couraged man.  His  family  suffers  at  what  he  need- 
lessly gave  up,  when  the  man  with  the  measuring  line 
appeared.  He  has  a  sort  of  excuse,  a  sufficient  ex- 
cuse for  him,  but  it  would  not  have  been  sufficient 
for  the  others  in  his  class,  who  would  have  kept  to 
the  ideal  and  surmounted  the  obstacles.  There  are 
two  ways  of  helping  a  man  up  a  mountain  with  a 
load.  One  is  to  increase  his  enthusiasm,  his  hope,  his 
purpose,  the  spiritual  factors  in  him,  or  to  decrease 
his  load.  Our  human  energies  cannot  be  estimated. 
They  have  never  been  fully  brought  out.  We  all  know 

[188] 


AN   INVENTORY   OF   WHAT   WE   HAVE 

that  in  certain  lines  we  have  ourselves  energies  that 
we  have  never  used,  certainly  not  to  their  limit.  How 
then  can  we  be  measured,  never  having  appeared  in 
full  capacity?  There  are  faculties,  in  all  our  neigh- 
bors, that  are  unused,  unappreciated,  unrecognized, 
and  of  course  unmeasured. 

Near  the  close  of  one  of  the  days  in  their  earliest 
married  life,  an  intelligent, 

Prosperous-looking  couple, 

out  walking  together  in  the  suburbs  of  their  home 
town,  were  attracted  by  a  large  colonial  house,  stand- 
ing apart  in  spacious  grounds.  Full  of  hope  and  sen- 
timent, the  young  husband  said  that  if  his  business 
flourished  and  he  happened  to  rise  in  the  world,  noth- 
ing would  suit  him  better,  than  to  buy  that  place  and 
give  it  to  the  community  for  a  hospital.  He  had 
often  noticed  the  place,  and  had  allowed  himself  to 
indulge  the  ideal  of  his  life,  to  acquire  that  estate, 
and  with  a  little  suitable  ceremonial,  which  would 
be  to  him  a  great  pleasure  and  reward,  bestow  a  deed 
of  it  upon  the  town.  His  business  for  a  fact,  under 
his  energetic  management,  thrived  remarkably.  An 
uncle  of  theirs,  meanwhile,  willed  them  a  large  prop- 
erty, and  the  husband  with  trained  insight  and  cal- 
culation began  to  talk  of  the  obvious  family  need  of 
a  more  capacious  house  that  would  correspond  with 
their  new  and  easy  circumstances,  and  their  need  of 
extending  larger  entertainment.  He  knew  no  other 
such  bargain,  nor  any  place  that  so  appealed  to  his 

[189] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

fancy  as  the  colonial  house  with  the  extended  lawn, 
and  so  needing  a  home  he  bought  it  and  filled  it  with 
furniture  and  lived  in  it  like  a  lord.  His  ideal  had 
faded.  The  candle  lighted  in  his  young  life  he  had 
put  under  a  bushel.  An  ideal  is  not  a  contract  with 
another  party  that  will  hold  you  up  to  a  performance 
of  its  terms.  If  your  enthusiasm  has  died,  if  your 
nature  has  receded  from  earlier  ideals,  if  the  divine 
Ought  is  classed,  as  a  youthful  feeling,  which  has  had 
its  day,  the  last  state  of  that  man  is  worse  than  the 
first.  My  ideals  and  I  may  part  company,  but  it  is 
not  they  that  are  the  worse  for  it. 

It  was  a  youthful  ignorance 

But  now  'tis  little  joy 

To  know  I'm  further  off  from  Heaven 

Than  when  I  was  a  boy. 

When  spending  a  day  once  in  a  carriage  with 
a  man  whose  life  supplied  the  background  of  the  story, 
he  told  me  about  an  acqaintance  whose  luck  in  fish- 
ing having  been  hard  he  uttered  the  prayer  and  vow 
that  if  the  Lord  would  give  him  one  good  big  haul, 
that  would  yield  him  something  worth  while,  one-half 
of  it  he  would  give  to  the  poor.  He  had  good  fortune. 
He  said  that  there  were  now  as  good  fish  in  the  sea 
as  ever  came  out  of  it,  and  that  the  poor  had  more 
time  to  fish  than  he  did.  If  they  really  desired  fish, 
they  knew  where  to  come  for  just  such  a  supply  as 
he  had  just  taken  and  the  chances  were  that  they 
would  get  them  with  less  trouble.  We  must  not  lose 

[190] 


AN   INVENTORY   OF   WHAT   WE   HAVE 

the  vision.  When  a  human  being  comes  to  regard 
lightly  those  ideals  which  he  has  once  sincerely  rever- 
enced it  is  his  own  condemnation.  It  is  the  falling 
away  of  a  man  whom  God  has  called.  Honor  your 
aptitude.  Read  in  it  your  divine  commission.  Any 
man  with  a  "calling"  is  a  co-worker  with  God  and 
the  Chief  Factor  will  see  the  work  through. 


[191] 


CHAPTER  XX 
A  DIFFERENCE  IN  CRADLES 

She  laid  him  in  a  manger.    Luke  2:7. 

The  thunderous  booming  of  cannon,  at  an  early 
hour  of  the  morning,  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  March, 
in  the  year  1856,  proclaimed  to  the  people  of  Paris 
and  of  France,  that  the  Emperor's  star  was  still 
ascendant,  and  that  an  heir  was  born  to  Napoleon 's 
throne.  For  more  than  a  fortnight  the  standing  guns 
upon  the  grounds  in  front  of  the  Hotel  of  the 
Invalides  had  been  kept  loaded,  and  the  veteran 
artillery-men,  with  lighted  match  rope,  were  march- 
ing to  and  fro  behind  them,  ready,  at  the  first  signal 
from  the  palace,  to  ignite  the  charges  and  proclaim 
to  the  people  of  the  city  and  of  the  surrounding  coun- 
try the  advent  of  the  heir  apparent  to  the  throne 
of  France. 

On  exhibition  in  a  millinery  establishment,  there 
had  long  been  kept,  for  the  child  a  vast  array  of  the 
most  costly  clothing,  exquisitely  wrought,  of  lace  and 
satin.  All  over  France  the  day  of  the  illustrious  ad- 
vent was  spent  in  rejoicing,  that  a  son  and  heir  to 
the  throne  of  the  empire  was  born,  while  the  courts 
at  the  Tuileries  were  crowded,  with  the  most  dis- 
tinguished generals  and  statesmen  of  France,  and  the 

[192] 


A   DIFFERENCE  IN  CRADLES 

dingy  barracks  of  the  Invalides  were  enveloped  in 
powder-smoke  from  the  overheated  guns. 

Thus  is  born  a  son  to  Napoleon  III.  and  Eugenie, 
a  son  known  to  us  as  the  Prince  Imperial,  who 
perished  miserably  by  an  assegai  in  the  hand  of  a 
savage  in  Africa. 

So,  too,  indeed,  was  it  that  by  a  preconcerted 
plan,  on  the  twentieth  of  March,  1811,  a  signal  was 
given  from  the  French  capital  announcing  the  ad- 
vent of  a  son  to  Napoleon  the  First.  From  a  thou- 
sand fortresses  countless  cannon  rolled  the  joyous 
proclamation  around  the  empire  until  the  echoing 
hills  reverberated  with  the  loud  rejoicing,  at  the  birth 
of  the  much-desired  heir  apparent.  No  sooner  had 
a  feeble  cry  escaped  from  the  infant  lips  —  for  the 
child  believed  to  be  dead,  being  without  warmth  or 
respiration,  was  reanimated  by  the  concussion  of  the 
cannon  —  then  the  Emperor  hurried  to  embrace  him 
and  to  bear  him  into  the  presence  of  the  great  dig- 
nitaries of  state  who  had  been  assembled  to  do  him 
honor. 

So  great  was  the  delight  of  the  Parisians  that 
they  kissed  and  embraced  each  other  on  the  streets. 
The  popular  enthusiasm  knew  no  bounds.  Men, 
women  and  children  flocked  together  to  the  Tuileries 
to  obtain  tidings  of  the  babe's  well-being.  Bulletins 
were  posted,  hourly,  to  inform  the  eager  people  re- 
specting the  health  of  the  royal  mother  and  child. 

He  is  not  an  hour  old,  when  he  is  proclaimed 
King  of  Rome.  He  is  not  ten  days  old,  when  two 

[193] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

regiments  of  six  companies  each,  composed  of  the 
orphans  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  battle  for  Napo- 
leon's cause,  become  by  imperial  decree  the  body- 
guard of  the  favored  child. 

In  six  months  eight  thousand  of  these  youthful 
soldiers  are  under  arms;  and  as,  in  the  Place  of  the 
Carousal,  the  Emperor  is  reviewing  the  troops,  a  bat- 
talion of  little  foot-soldiers  in  good  order  is  seen  to 
advance.  They  draw  themselves  up  in  line  of  battle 
immediately  opposite  a  battalion  of  the  old  guards, 
and,  placing  himself  between  them  and  the  old  grena- 
diers, Napoleon  said:  " These  children  are  worthy 
of  their  fathers.  I  confide  to  them  the  guard  of  my 
son." 

Then  from  the  throats  of  the  people  and  of  the 
guards,  —  thenceforth  sworn  to  the  service  of  the  in- 
fant king  of  Borne,  the  deafening  cry  of  "Long  live 
the  Emperor!"  rent  the  air. 

Turn  now  from  the  Tuileries  to  a  manger. 
Heaven's  greatest  achievements  begin  in  obscurity 
and  silence.  Nothing  of  noisy  exultation  told  of  the 
advent  of  the  Messiah.  No  ready  herald  stood  wait- 
ing to  report  to  the  anxious  servants  of  state  His 
natal  hour  upon  whose  shoulders  was  the  government 
of  a  Redeemer's  kingdom,  destined  to  spread  from 
sea  to  sea  and  from  river  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

"And  but  for  the  mysterious  voicing 
Of  that  unearthly  choir,  rejoicing, 
And  but  for  that  strange  herald  gem, 

[194] 


A   DIFFERENCE   IN   CRADLES 

The  star  that  burned  o'er  Bethlehem, 

The  shepherds  on  His  natal  morn 

Had  known  not  that  the  Lord  was  born." 

There  must  be  divinity  in  a  king  and  vitality  in 
a  kingdom  that  could  rise  up  to  the  work  of  universal 
conquest  from  such  disadvantages  and  obscurity.  But 
where  is  Napoleon?  He  is  dead.  And  Napoleon  II? 
He  is  dead.  And  Napoleon  III  and  his  son,  the  late 
Prince  Imperial?  They  are  dead.  And  the  French 
Empire?  It  is  dead.  ALnd  that  diadem  and  those 
jewels?  Some  of  them  the  auctioneer  has  offered  for 
sale. 

Turn  now  to  the  Prince  of  Peace,  and  hear  the 
inspired  word  proclaim,  "He  ever  liveth." 

Yes,  Christ  lives,  and  in  never  so  many  hearts 
as  He  does  today.  Yea,  verily,  His  kingdom  Is  an 
everlasting  kingdom  and  His  dominion  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  Yea,  by  all  the  festivities  of  this 
glad  season,  by  all  the  songs  of  Christmas  morning, 
by  all  the  worship  of  Christian  people,  by  all  the  in- 
creasing acclaim  of  joy  with  which  the  glad  tidings 
of  Christmas  day  are  received,  Christ  lives. 

And  Troy  and  Athens  yet  retain 
Their  spell  for  pleasure  and  for  pain; 
But  there  is  that  which  passes  them — 
'Tis  Thy  blest  history,  Bethlehem! 

They  are  dead  which  sought  the  young  child's 
life.  Infidel  books  have  tried  to  dethrone  Christ  and 
to  refute  Christianity.  Critics  have  sharpened  their 

[195] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

knives;  Voltaire  cried,  "I  have  crushed  the  wretch ;" 
deep-laid  schemes  have  been  formed  to  undermine  the 
church;  the  meeting-house  has  been  brought  into  all 
sorts  of  competitive  rivalries ;  the  Bible  was  to  be  laid 
aside ;  the  hymn-book  was  to  be  supplanted ;  but  here 
they  are.  The  church  is  spreading  at  home  and  in 
heathen  lands.  Christ  lives.  And  they  are  dead 
that  sought  the  young  child 's  life.  Christ's  conquests 
are  not  yet  complete,  but  the  immortal  energy  of  love 
has  begun  its  sway.  Joy,  then,  for  the  news  of  Christ- 
mas morning.  Joy  for  the  birth  of  the  Prince  of 
Peace.  Earth  with  earnest  expectation  waited  long 
for  the  salutations  of  Christmas  day. 

"There's  a  song  in  the  air,  there's  a  star  in  the  sky, 
There's  a  mother's  deep  prayer,  and  a  baby's  low  cry, 
And  the  star  rains  its  fire,  while  the  beautiful  sing, 
For  the  manger  of  Bethlehem  cradles  a  King." 


[196] 


CHAPTER  XXI 
WHY  PEOPLE  CANNOT 

They  could  not  because  of  unbelief.    Heb.  3:19. 

The  cavalry's  part  is  to  supply  eyes  for  the  army. 
Sheridan  was  sent  forward  to  determine  the  strength 
of  the  Confederate  forces  about  Richmond.  He  would 
have  a  brush  with  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  who  would  fall  right 
back  on  Lee's  whole  army.  In  making  his  report, 
General  Sheridan  said,  "I  can  thresh  Stuart  any 
time."  General  Meade  repeated  this  remark  to  Gen- 
eral Grant,  who  inquired,  "Why  didn't  you  tell  him 
to  do  it?"  This  was  done.  Sheridan  cut  loose  and, 
with  all  his  cavalry,  boldly  proceeded  as  if  going  into 
Richmond.  Stuart,  seeing  what  he  thought  to  be  an 
opportunity  for  an  exploit,  moved  in  behind  Sheridan 
and  cut  him  off  from  his  base  of  supplies.  Napoleon 
used  to  say,  "Never  interrupt  an  enemy  when  he  is 
making  a  mistake."  Sheridan  kept  moving  straight 
on,  giving  Stuart  a  chance  to  become  detached  from 
Lee's  army.  Then,  at  the  right  moment,  Sheridau 
gave  the  sharp  order,  'Bout  face.  Turning  quickly, 
with  solid,  overwhelming  force,  he  rode  Stuart  down, 
which  was  the  last  of  him  and  of  his  bright  plans. 
His  forces  were  shattered. 

Victory  must  begin  somewhere. 
It    started    in    Sheridan's    heart    at    the    time    he 

[197] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

deeply  felt,  and  resolutely  stated,  what  he  could  do. 
For  an  absence  of  this  resolve  read  the  defeat  of  the 
Spanish  Armada,  as  told  by  the  historian,  Froude. 
It  was  the  greatest  fleet  the  Mediaeval  World  had 
ever  seen.    It  consisted  of  130  ships,  and  carried  more 
than  30,000  sailors  and  soldiers.     By  its  size  it  was 
meant    to    overwhelm    all    distance.      Magnificent, 
mightiest  in  the  world,  the  fleet  carried  2,500  guns. 
Now  let  us  read  the  letter  which  the  commander 
wrote  to  king  Philip  of  Spain  when  he  was  notified 
of  his  appointment.    "My  health  is  bad,  and  from  my 
small  experience  of  the  water  I  know  that  I  am  always 
seasick.     The  expedition  is  on  such  a  scale,  and  the 
object  of  it  is  of  such  high  importance  that  the  person 
at  the  head  of  it  ought  to  understand  sea  fighting 
and  navigation,  and  I  know  nothing  of  either.    I  have 
not  one  of  these  essential  qualifications.     I  have  no 
acquaintance  among  the  officers  who  are  to  serve  un- 
der me.    Were  I  competent  otherwise  I  should  have 
to  act  in  the  dark  by  the  opinion  of  others,  and  I  can- 
not tell  to  whom  I  may  trust.     The  adelantado  of 
Castile  would  do  better  than  I.    Our  Lord  would  help 
him,  for  he  is  a  good  Christian,  and  has  fought  in 
naval  battles.     If  you  send  me,  depend  upon  it,  I 
shall  have  a  bad  account  to  render  of  my  trust. ' '    The 
doubter  cannot  be  a  leader,  nor  can  he  exert  a  power- 
ful moral  force.     This  man  was  defeated  before  he 
started. 

He  left  home  whipped. 

As  for  a  victory,  he  would  not  know  what  to  do  with 

[198] 


WHY  PEOPLE   CANNOT 

it.  His  mind  was  not  prepared  for  it.  It  would  have 
been  inappropriate  and  misplaced.  Being  at  heart  de- 
feated, the  King  who  sent  him  ought  to  have  read  the 
handwriting  on  the  wall,  Weighed  and  found  wanting. 
By  giving  such  a  man  command  the  King  affronted 
God  and  fortune,  the  fitness  of  things,  all  rules  of  suc- 
cess, and  the  result  was  one  of  the  most  monumental 
disasters  of  history.  So  we  see  he  could  not  win  because 
of  unbelief.  He  did  not  believe  in  himself,  nor  in  the 
Deity,  in  whom  he  declared  the  other  commander 
believed,  nor  in  any  likelihood  of  victory.  Ninety 
thousand  defeated  men,  says  General  Foch,  withdraw 
before  ninety  thousand  victorious  men  solely  because 
they  have  had  enough,  and  they  have  had  enough  be- 
cause they  no  longer  believe  in  victory,  because  a  bat- 
tle won  is  a  battle  in  which  one  refuses  to  acknowl- 
edge defeat. 

In  a  country  school  attended  by  big  boys  and 
pupils  generally  of  all  ages,  a  teacher  once  said  on 
the  opening  morning  that  he  had  never  taught  before 
and  he  did  not  know  how  he  should  succeed,  that  he 
undertook  the  task  with  many  misgivings,  that  he 
was  afraid  that  his  particular  weakness  would  be  in 
maintaining  order,  and  least  of  all  in  setting  up  any- 
thing like  discipline,  that  as  the  day  approached  to 
open  the  school,  he  had  become  so  conscious  of  his 
defects  that  he  might  as  well  say  plainly  that  he  felt 
unfitted  for  what  was  before  him.  That  is  a  good 
place  for  him  to  stop  his  career  as  teacher. 

[199] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

His  usefulness  is  over. 

Whether  or  not  it  is  true  that  a  man  can  who  thinks 
he  can,  the  reverse  is  a  fact.  If  a  man  thinks  he  can- 
not, and  has  led  the  other  minds  to  think  he  cannot, 
he  cannot,  and  he  cannot  because  of  unbelief. 

Life's  battles  don't  always  go 
To  the  strongest  or  fastest  man ; 

But  soon  or  late  the  man  who  wins 
Is  the  one  who  thinks  he  can. 

He  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already. 
Certainly  he  is,  and  should  be.  He  that  believeth  not 
in  society  is  condemned.  He  that  believeth  not  in 
law  and  order  is  legally  condemned.  He  that  believeth 
not  in  keeping  his  word  and  observing  treaties  is  con- 
demned by  the  law  of  nations.  He  that  believeth  not 
in  himself,  nor  in  the  relations,  in  which  he  has  come 
to  stand,  should  not  be  put  in  command  of  a  fleet, 
nor  of  a  school.  He  is  condemned  already,  by  those 
that  have  insight  into  human  nature,  and  he  ought 
to  be  displaced.  He  is  disqualified  in  advance.  No 
obstacle,  no  barrier,  no  blockade,  no  interference  has 
yet  appeared. 

The  preventive  is  in  nothing  outward. 
It  is  in  him,  in  his  mind  and  heart,  in  his  lack  of 
motive  and  faith  and  hope  and  resolve.  Doubt  in- 
dulged becomes  doubt  realized.  To  think  a  thing  is 
impossible  is  to  make  it  so.  Expectation  is  the  first 
step  in  achievement.  Confidence  is  a  great  element 
of  success  even  in  a  game  of  ball.  It  is  unlikely  we 
will  either  hit  or  catch  a  ball  we  are  expecting  to 

[200] 


WHY  PEOPLE   CANNOT 

miss.  Some  one  has  said  that  Columbus  practically 
found  America  before  he  left  Spain,  and  so  far  from 
being  surprised,  when  he  saw  the  western  continent, 
he  would  have  been  surprised  if  he  had  not  seen  it. 
All  prophecies  are  written  upon  the  man  himself. 
What  we  will,  that  for  one  short  moment  at  least,  is 
done.  What  we  desire,  that  for  one  short  moment, 
we  are.  When  a  man  predicts  ultimate  failure,  he 
simply  fulfills  his  own  prophecy,  which  it  is  in  the 
nature  of  the  mind  to  tend  toward  doing.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  the  mind  is  profoundly  convinced 
of  a  truth,  it  conquers.  If  I  were  asked  to  pick  up 
a  racing  crew,  I  would  never  select  a  man  who  would 
feel  discouraged  because  things  looked  a  little  dark. 
One  faint  heart  in  a  boat  would  spoil  any  crew. 

In  Amherst  College,  Mr.  Beecher  was  sent  to  the 
board  to  demonstrate  a  theorem.  He  spread  out  his 
figures  and  began  his  proof.  The  professor  sat  shak- 
ing his  head  and  saying, 

"No,  no,  no,  oh,  no." 

The  future  pulpit  orator,  full  of  language,  attempted 
to  resume  his  recital.  "Oh,  no,  no,  no,"  said  the 
teacher,  and  Mr.  Beecher  went  to  his  seat  in  red  con- 
fusion. Another  student  was  called  to  the  blackboard. 
Availing  himself  of  the  figures  already  made,  he  op- 
ened the  recitation.  The  teacher  said,  "No,  oh,  no/' 
but  the  pupil  said,  '  *  Yes,  yes,  this  is  certainly  right.  It 
is  coming  out  just  right, ' '  and  was  rewarded  with  the 
words,  "Very  well."  The  future  anti-slavery  cham- 

[201] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

pion  rallied  enough  to  say,  "Why,  those  are  my 
figures.  He  has  only  followed  my  lines. "  "Yes," 
said  the  professor,  "but  the  difference  is,  you  know 
it,  but  he  knows  that  he  knows  it. ' '  He  had  certitude 
and  a  courage  about  it,  what  the  Scripture  calls  the 
assurance  of  understanding,  and  in  the  book  from 
which  the  text  is  taken  he  has  the  assurance  of  faith. 
It  takes  a  woman 's  insight  to  analyze  this  absence 
of  self-reliance,  this  hesitation  about  casting  in  one's 
lot  with  what  is  fundamentally  right,  and  staking 
one's  all  upon  the  issue,  and  to  put  in  words,  the 
cure.  Her  little  daughter  having  taken  lessons  in 
music  and  having  practiced  a  good  deal,  was  invited 
to  play  before  visitors.  She  says  she  cannot.  She 
never  has  played  in  company.  She  knows  she  will 
break  down,  and  she  does  not  feel  very  well  either, 
but  her  mother  entreats  and  gently  urges  her  toward 
the  keyboard  of  the  piano.  "I  can't  do  it.  I  shall 
not  get  half  way  through.  I  shall  break  down, ' '  which 
she  does,  and  switches  off  to  the  back  of  the  room,  with 
the  air  of  I  told  you  so,  and  the  fond  mother,  who 
is  grieved  at  the  situation,  promptly  says,  "Dear 
child,  she  could  if  she  only  thought  she  could."  If 
she  thinks  she  cannot,  why  of  course  she  cannot.  The 
work  of  the  world  is  done  by  men  who  have  bound- 
less faith  in  the  enterprise  they  have  undertaken. 
Nothing  saps  the  strength  like  loss  of  faith. 

Who  can  imagine  a  half-hearted  Stanley  f 
The  man  who  is  to  cross  Africa  must  believe  that  he  is 
doing  that  particular  thing  which  above  all  others 

[202] 


WHY  PEOPLE   CANNOT 

needs  to  be  done,  and  that  he  is  the  man  to  do  it.  If 
Stanley  had  begun  to  think  that  perhaps  it  didn  't  mat- 
ter much  after  all,  it  would  have  been  all  up  with  him 
and  his  followers.  Even  a  lady  does  not  like  a  half- 
hearted lover  who  does  not  seem  to  know  his  own  mind. 
Some  young  persons,  on  becoming  Christians,  take 
great  pains  to  keep  the  way  open  by  which  they  can 
turn  back.  They  are  wary  about  committing  them- 
selves or  making  any  profession.  They  are  like  those 
generals  whose  thoughts  are  mainly  on  keeping  open 
the  line  of  retreat.  "Any  man  who  is  prepared  for  de- 
feat would  be  half  defeated  before  he  commenced. 
As  to  being  prepared  for  defeat,"  said  Admiral  Far- 
ragut,  "I  certainly  am  not."  When  Admiral  Dupont 
was  explaining  to  him  the  reason  he  failed  to  enter 
Charleston  Harbor  with  his  fleet  of  iron-clads,  he  gave 
this  and  that  and  the  other  reason.  "Ah,  Dupont 
there  is  one  other  reason."  "What  is  that?"  "You 
did  not  believe  you  could  do  it."  When  determined 
commanders  find  there  is  too  much  thought  given  to 
backing  out,  they  fire  their  ships  as  soon  as  they  make 
a  landing  and  burn  their  bridges  behind  them.  That 
gives  the  men  a  forward  look.  I  can  because  I  ought, 
becomes  the  motto.  The  peculiarity  that  keeps  a 
young  person  from  holding  out  in  the  religious  life 
is  not  any  fault  in  the  religion.  It  is  the  non-com- 
mittal, hesitating,  attitude  of  mind  which  means  de- 
feat everywhere.  The  need  is  stamina,  resolve,  the 
exercise  of  a  master  mind,  reliance  on  the  revealed 

[203] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

facts  and  a  holy  confidence  to  take  Almighty  God 
at  His  word.  To  make  progress  toward  Heaven  the 
first  step  must  be  by  faith.  Away  with  weak-kneed 
doubt.  The  Kingdom  does  not  need  it  and  if  you 
do,  it  does  not  need  you.  No  man  having  put  his 
hand  to  the  plough  and  looking  back,  is  fit  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  He  is  not  fitted  for  it.  Into  the 
everlasting  Kingdom  entrance  shall  be  ministered 
abuntantly  unto  him  who  seeks  the  Lord  with  a 
whole  heart,  early  and  finds  him.  Then  when  the 
plough  is  nearing  the  end  of  the  long  furrow  he  has 
this  confidence,  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth.  I 
shall  see  God:  I  shall  see  for  myself,  and  mine  eyes 
shall  behold  and  not  another. 


1204] 


CHAPTER  XXII 
LITTLE  COATS  FOR  LITTLE  MEN 

His  mother  made  him  a  little  coat  and  brought  it  to  him. 
I  Sam.  2:19. 

This  is  the  world's  prettiest,  sweetest  story  of 
mother  and  son.  It  stands  in  the  Bible  just  where 
the  tender  affection  for  St.  Augustine  does  in  history. 
He  was  an  only  son.  While  he  was  wild  and  far  from 
God,  the  tears  of  his  mother  fell  to  the  ground.  Such 
prayers  could  not  be  disregarded.  Like  Luther,  and 
Knox,  and  Chalmers,  he  gave  a  new  impulse  to  his 
own  generation  and  to  suceeding  ages.  For  a  thou- 
sand years  previous  to  the  reformation  his  writings, 
next  to  the  Scriptures  were  the  guide  of  those  who 
sought  the  narrow  way.  Literature  does  not  show 
another  instance  of  such  benefit  to  the  church  among 
the  works  of  men.  There  is  no  love  like  mother  love. 
When  a  biographer  seeks  to  appeal  to  us,  along  with 
the  son  comes  the  mother.  As  in  the  life  of  Wash- 
ington, we  are  shown  that  the  son  inherits  from  his 
mother  a  high  temper  and  spirit  of  command  such 
as  was  shown  at  the  battle  of  Monmouth  when  he 
rode  down  his  own  favorite  horse  and  used  impetuous 
volcanic  speech  when  he  found  Lee  in  retreat.  Then, 

[205] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

to  heighten  the  effect  by  a  contrast,  the  mother  is 
shown  reading  to  the  boy  whose  father  died  when 
he  was  twelve,  lessons  of  morality  and  religion  out 
of  the  ''contemplations  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale,"  a 
volume  having  in  it  his  mother's  name  in  her  own 
handwriting,  which  the  great  general,  standing  first 
in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  always  preserved 
with  the  most  religious  care,  as  it  gave  him  that 
balance,  firmness,  dignity,  and  elevation  of  character 
which  made  him  rank  as  a  superior  man. 

And  the  child  Samuel  was  young  and  his  mother 
brought  him  into  the  house  of  the  Lord  and  said  to 
Eli,  I  have  lent  him  to  the  Lord. 

This  was  the  talk. 

Meanwhile,  notice  the  act  of  the  boy.  And  he,  the 
little  fellow  himself  so  young,  worshiped  the  Lord 
there,  and  at  this  sight,  the  consummation  of  the 
mother's  prayer,  she  broke  right  out  in  song.  There 
are  moments  when  nothing  less  than  a  hymn  of  praise 
will  utter  what  is  felt  in  an  overflowing  heart.  The 
sentiment  she  so  worthily  expressed  opens  with  al- 
most the  same  words  as  the  hymn  of  Mary,  the  mother 
of  our  Lord. 

"My  soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord 

And  my  spirit  hath  rejoiced  in  God,  my  Saviour." 

In  our  Saviour's  visit  to  Jerusalem,  his  mother 
went  with  him  and  stood  by  him  in  the  final  hour. 

[206] 


LITTLE   COATS   FOR   LITTLE   MEN 

"Poets  oft  have  sung  her  story, 
Painters  decked  her  brow  with  glory, 
Priests  her  name  have  deified: 
But  no  worship,  song,  or  glory, 
Touches  like  the  simple  story, 
Mary  stood  the  cross  beside." 

There  are  two  things  that  prevent  us  from  view- 
ing matters  from  a  small  boy's  point  of  view.  "We 
judge  others  by  ourselves,  and  suppose  that  they  see 
and  feel  as  we  do.  A  father  and  his  little  son  were 
on  the  street  to  view  a  procession,  and  the  father 
was  interested  in  it,  but  the  child  was  unsatisfied  and 
restless,  and  it  seemed  unaccountable.  But  on  bend- 
ing down  to  reason  with  him  the  father  found  that, 
from  the  boy's  level,  there  was  no  display  to  sight, 
and  he  lifted  him  up  and  soon  both  of  his  hands  were 
pointing  toward  the  pageant  while  he  kept  exclaim- 
ing, "Dere,  dere." 

After  we  are  familiar  with  people  in  their  prime 
and  greatness,  we  hold  an  estimate  of  them,  which  is 
far  advanced  from  a  child's  expression.  Great  men 
pass  into  history  at  the  climax  of  their  careers,  and 
even  in  their  ashes  lived  their  wonted  fires.  When 
Samuel  last  appeared  he  was  described  as  an  old  man 
covered  with  a  mantle.  After  Samuel  has  faced  Saul 
who,  from  his  shoulders  and  upward  was  higher  than 
any  of  the  people,  and  told  him  that  he  was  rejected 
from  being  king,  after  he  has  hewed  Agag  in  pieces, 
these  tragic  scenes  rather  overlay  the  picture  of  the 
visit  of  the  gentle,  prayerful  mother  to  the  house  of 

[207] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

the  Lord,  bringing  each  year  a  little  coat  for  her  son, 
finding  pleasure  doubtless  in  trying  it  on  him  to  test 
its  fit.  But 

These  angel  visits 

were  never  effaced  from  the  memory  of  Samuel.  They 
lay  at  the  foundation  of  his  character  and  of  his  out- 
standing success.  A  minister,  after  the  death  of  his 
wife,  took  their  little  son  into  the  parlor  and  asked  him 
if  his  dear  mother  did  not  sometimes  kneel  with  him 
and  pray.  With  eyes  instantly  filled  with  tears,  the 
little  disciple  artlessly  replied,  ''Yes,  father,  mother 
used  to  kneel  at  that  chair  and  hold  my  hand  and  pray 
for  father  and  for  me,  and  for  Henry,  and  for  all  of 
us. ' '  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  has  made  a  famous  picture, 
thousands  of  times  copied,  of  little  Samuel  waiting  on 
his  knees  to  hear  the  voice  of  the  Lord  if  He  should 
again  call  him.  He  is  clothed  in  the  little  coat,  or 
mantle,  which  his  mother  brought  him.  It  means  that 
a  little  boy  in  a  little  coat  can  pray  and  love  the  Lord, 
and  engage  in  religious  service  without  using  big 
words  or  making  long  prayers.  And  Christ  himself 
said  to  older  men  and  women  that  except  they  became 
like  the  little  boy  in  the  little  coat  they  should  not 
enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Three  things 
were  probably  true  of  Samuel.  First,  he  was  affec- 
tionate. 

That  is  just  like  a  boy. 

A  mother  now  living,  speaking  of  her  pleasure  in  her 
family,  said  it  was  a  great  delight  to  do  things  for  boys 
as  they  love  you  so.  That  is  a  fact  about  boys.  They 

[208] 


LITTLE   COATS   FOR   LITTLE   MEN 

have  warm  hearts.  A  mother,  having  a  little  son  who 
sold  papers,  often  had  nice  talks  with  him,  as  they  had 
heard  at  church  together  that  a  Bible  reader  among 
the  heathen  could  be  employed  for  nine  dollars  a  year. 
During  a  conversation  he  said  he  believed  he  could 
give  the  profits  of  his  sales  on  one  day  out  of  each 
week  toward  the  support  of  the  Bible  reader,  and  so 
they  formed  a  company,  and  together  they  set  their 
Bible  reader  going.  The  wife  of  the  minister  at 
Franklin,  New  Hampshire,  used  to  talk  with  her 
little  son  about  what  he  would  do  when  he  grew  up, 
and  under  the  holy  influence  of  the  Sabbath  after- 
noon he  told  his  mother  during  the  talk,  in  which  their 
hearts  flowed  together,  that  he  believed  he  would  like 
to  be  a  missionary.  His  little  imagination  lighted  him 
on  his  way,  and  looking  at  his  mother  fondly,  said, 
"And  won't  the  heathen  be  glad  when  they  see  me 
coming  with  the  Bibles/' 

Another  thing  is  certain  about  the  little  boy  with 
the  little  coat,  that  he  had  an  open  mind.  When  the 
telephone  bell  rings  in  a  very  remote  part  of  the  house, 
a  child  will  hear  it.  The  elderly  people  are  not  quite 
so  sure  to  do  so.  A  child's  ears  and  eyes  are  open. 
And  it  came  to  pass  at  that  time,  when  Eli  was  laid 
down  to  sleep,  that  the  Lord  called,  Samuel.  He  re- 
sponded by  rising. 

Little  boys  hear  a  great  many  calls  of  God. 
Many  ministers   have  left   us  their  testimony   that 
they  had  a  call  to  their  work  when  they  were  chil- 
dren.   Bishop  Simpson  believes  that  the  time  is  com- 

[209] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

ing  when  most  of  those  who  join  the  church  will 
come  as  children.  I  think  that  most  little  boys  pray. 
The  quick  blush  of  a  child  shows  how  sensitive  he  is, 
and  how  readily  he  receives  an  impression,  and  his 
situation  in  the  world  is  such,  that  nature  tends  to 
make  him  teachable.  "Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our 
infancy. "  A  boy,  trying  to  be  old,  is  a  monstrosity. 
The  way  to  their  hearts  is  closed  when  they  have  to  be 
treated  like  little  old  men.  That  certainly  is  not 
God's  way  with  a  boy.  It  is  natural  as  it  is  beau- 
tiful. He  is  constantly  sending  messages  by  children. 
Many  of  us  incline  to  think  that  if  the  All-wise  One 
has  a  religious  work  to  do  it  would  be  more  appropri- 
ate to  call  the  aged  prophet  to  do  it  than  the  minister- 
ing boy.  But  Eli  had  no  ear  for  the  finer  vibrations 
of  the  spiritual  voice.  In  uncounted  cases  the  Lord 
has  used  a  child  to  unite  a  family,  to  incline  them  to 
attend  church,  and  to  speak  to  them  of  religious  duty. 
Religion  is  best  expressed  by  boys  and  girls.  It  is 
thus  by  God's  appointment.  Their  superb  singing  is 
like  cathedral  music;  for  purely  religious  effect  it  is 
common  to  use  children's  voices.  At  a  recent  confer- 
ence a  chart  exhibited,  on  a  sliding  scale,  the  ages  at 
which  persons  in  that  locality  joined  the  church.  It 
appeared  that  as  many  united  with  the  church  before 
they  were  twelve  as  after  they  were  twenty.  In  the 
presence  of  this  amazing  fact  the  audience  continued 
so  incredulous  that  it  was  tested  at  a  random  on  the 
congregation  then  present,  and  the  showing  as  given 

[210] 


LITTLE    COATS    FOB   LITTLE   MEN 

was  justified.  Those  who  are  called  to  be  princes  in 
the  earth  will  increasingly  be,  like  David,  anointed 
in  their  father's  house  before  they  go  forth  to  the 
struggle  of  life. 

Children  are  not  waifs. 

They  are  not  foundlings.  Within  a  generation  two 
living  forces  have  entered  the  field,  which  perceptibly 
lower  the  age  at  which  children  become  Christians. 
One  of  them  is  the  prevailing  idea  of  the  kindergarten, 
the  child's  garden,  in  which  education  is  begun  much 
earlier  than  formerly.  The  other  is  the  unmeasured 
influence  of  Professor  Drummond,  and  of  kindred 
spirits  in  the  new  religious  movement  of  college  men 
who  hold  and  teach,  that  in  religion  there  need  be  no 
cant,  no  sanctimoniousness,  nothing  unreal  or  exag- 
gerated in  expression  or  feeling,  to  be  put  on  like 
Saul's  armor.  If  it  be  true  that  man  is  actually  re- 
ligious, it  is  doubly  true  of  boys  with  their  inherent 
faith  in  God,  and  with  their  acceptance  of  immortal- 
ity. In  its  exquisite  simplicity  religion,  like  the  little 
coat,  is  the  right  fit  for  a  boy.  No  one  is  called  to 
adopt  a  set  of  phrases.  Each  tree  is  allowed  to  bear 
fruit  after  its  kind.  These  persons  are  careful  not  to 
interfere  with  the  school  studies,  nor  with  athletics, 
there  being  no  law  against  a  good  head  and  a  good 
body,  as  they  are  needed  and  go  well  with  a  good 
heart.  When  the  awful  explosion  came  at  Halifax 
little  Lola  Burns,  the  eight-year-old  daughter  of  John 
Burns,  of  Granville  Street,  was  on  her  knees  by  her  cot 
saying  her  morning  prayer.  The  house  collapsed. 

[211] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

Hours  later  the  child  was  found  in  the  midst  of  the 
wreckage  hemmed  in  by  fallen  timbers  and  sur- 
rounded by  broken  glass.  She  was  unharmed,  and  as 
deliverance  approached  her  prayer  was  turned  to 
Christian  hope  and  then  to  thanksgiving.  When 
saved  she  was  still  on  her  knees,  pouring  out  her  soul 
in  prayer.  This  is  the  soul's  attitude  while  the  af- 
fections are  still  fresh  and  unchilled  by  any  disap- 
pointments, with  no  prejudices  to  overcome.  Its 
habit  then  is  with  ardor  to  give  the  whole  heart  with- 
out reserve  to  him  who  plainly  said,  Those  that  seek 
me  early  shall  find  me. 


[212] 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

PROVIDENCE  OPENS  THE  GATE 
A  little  Maid.     2  Kings  5:2. 

Except  the  litttle  maid  had  been  in  Naaman's 
house,  except  the  Syrians  had  gone  out  by  bands  and 
brought  her  away  a  captive  out  of  the  land  of  Israel, 
except  for  her  confidence  in  the  representative  man 
of  her  religion,  not  in  the  king,  not  in  the  power  of 
money,  but  in  the  prophet  that  is  in  Samaria,  except 
for  her  early  definite  impression  touching  the  tender 
compassion  of  him  who  inherited  Elijah 's  mantle  and 
a  double  portion  of  his  spirit,  causing  him  to  be  the 
nearest  approach  to  the  coming  Saviour  in  gracious- 
ness  and  blessing,  Naaman,  Captain  of  the  Host  of 
the  King  of  Syria,  a  great  man  with  his  master,  a 
mighty  man  of  valor,  would  have  remained  a  leper. 
Medical  aid  could  have  given  him  little  prospect  of 
a  cure  and  very  little  hope  of  much  relief.  This 
chain  of  events  in  which  the  little  maid  forever 
stands  as  the  shining  link,  exhibits  the  outstanding 
truth  that  God's  Providences  always  match.  When 
we  see  so  distinctly  that  Naaman  is  a  providential 
person,  we  must  keep  just  as  clearly  in  mind,  that 
each  one  of  us  is  fully  as  much  so.  The  distinguish- 
ing beauty  of  his  life  is  that  the  fact  can  be  so  clearly 

[213] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

seen.    In  that  day  when  the  Books  are  opened, 

The  Book  of  Providence 

and  the  Book  of  Life,  we  will  see  the  events  of  our 
lives  connected  up  as  they  are  shown  in  the  case  of 
the  little  maid.  God's  opportunities  always  come 
to  the  right  person.  The  point  of  the  text  is  to  have 
us  see  this  little  maid  respond  to  the  touch  of  Provi- 
dence. The  hand  of  Heaven  often  seems  most  con- 
spicuous in  the  life  of  a  girl  or  young  woman.  She 
is  passing  along  the  street,  turns  a  corner,  looks 
into  a  face  and  from  that  face  she  can  never  turn 
away.  l( Whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go;  and  where 
thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge ;  thy  people  shall  be  my 
people,  and  thy  God  my  God;  where  thou  diest, 
will  I  die,  and  there  I  will  be  buried;  the  Lord 
do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  aught  but  death 
part  thee  and  me."  William  S.  Tyler,  professor  of 
Greek  in  Amherst  College,  often  called  the  Attic 
Bee,  fully  decided  to  go  West.  At  the  springtide,  the 
roads  were  heavy  and  in  some  places  in  the  country 
almost  impassable,  the  stage  driver  refused  to  take 
his  heavy  trunk,  probably  laden  in  part  with  books. 
It  was  in  those  days  impracticable  to  go  without  it 
or  to  become  detached  from  it,  and  so  he  must  wait  for 
the  roads  to  settle.  In  the  mean  time  he  received  an 
invitation  to  fill  for  a  single  term  an  unexpired  tutor- 
ship. This  changed  the  whole  current  of  his  life. 
He  became  and  continued  for  57  years  to  be  the  re- 
ligious representative  and  exponent  of  the  college, 
signalizing  his  service  by  his  remarkable  book  on  the 

[214] 


PROVIDENCE  OPENS  THE  GATE 

Day  of  Prayer  for  Colleges.  He  came  to  stand  at 
Amherst  where  Professor  Albert  Hopkins,  brother 
of  the  president,  did  at  Williams,  before  the  young 
men  took  over  the  work  of  educating  one  another 
religiously,  as  the  main  stay,  the  mentor,  the  re- 
sponsible head  and  guide  of  the  religious  life  of  the 
institution.  The  opposing  Angel,  in  the  person  of  a 
stage-driver,  met  him  in  a  narrow  way,  where  there 
was  no  turning  and  a  mere  trunk  became  an  impedi- 
ment that  was  prohibitive.  The  best  proof  of  the 
doctrine  that  we  have  before  us  is  testimony.  There 
is  probably  no  person  having  an  observing  mind  Tmt 
that  can  point  to  an  incident  seemingly  small  at  the 
time  and  ever  after,  an  event  that  was  not  thought  of 
or  planned  with  reference  to  its  great  result  that 
directly  affected  all  his  subsequent  days. 

Doctor  Horace  Bushnell  distinctly  states  that 
his  career  turned  on  a  wafer.  He  always  made  con- 
spicuous his  belief  that  great  opportunity  existed  at 
the  West  to  form  institutions  and  mould  society.  He 
determined  to  share  in  this  formative  work.  He  was 
appointed  to  a  Tutorship  in  Yale  College.  He  wrote 
a  letter  to  President  Day,  declining  the  honor.  Before 
mailing  the  letter  he  noticed  the  absence  of  the 
wafer  to  seal  it.  Having  obtained  it  as  he  was  going 
out  of  the  door  he  encountered  his  mother,  who  on 
learning  his  decision  told  him  that  he  had  settled 
the  question  without  any  consideration  at  all  that 
she  had  seen.  A  postponement  seemed  reasonable, 
which  carried  the  result  that  he  was  taken  back  to 

[215] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

New  Haven.  One  of  those  revivals  came  on  which 
early  pervaded  the  life  of  the  college,  which  drew 
out  and  set  in  motion  certain  great  and  abiding 
forces.  His  decision  to  enter  the  ministry  carried  the 
result  that  eternity  alone  can  reveal.  His  ' '  Christian 
Nurture"  has  affected  all  Christian  thought,  from 
his  own  day  to  this,  and  has  made  its  way  against 
a  willful  misunderstanding  and  great  opposition. 

It  was  an  age-maker. 

The  other  clear  thinker  and  great  author  whose 
works  are  likeliest,  with  Bushnell's  to  be  found  in 
the  libraries  of  most  clergymen  the  world  around, 
is  Frederick  William  Robertson.  "A  more  thought- 
ful, suggestive  and  beautiful  preacher  never  entered 
a  pulpit."  His  teachings  are  as  clear  as  the  light. 
Some  of  his  findings,  like  Bushnell's  being  so  often 
quoted,  have  become  a  part  of  the  worlds  common 
stock  of  knowledge.  His  biographer  traces  the 
working  of  that  Mysterious  Factor  that  shapes  our 
destinies  and  diverted  him  from  the  army  to  the 
ministry.  Life  has  its  invisible  switches.  It  seems 
that  the  daughter  of  Lady  Trench  had  been  seriously 
ill.  She  was  prevented  from  sleeping  by  the  barking 
of  a  dog  in  one  of  the  adjoining  houses.  This  house 
was  Captain  Robertson's.  A  letter  was  written  to 
ask  that  the  dog  might  be  removed ;  and  so  kind  and 
acquiescent  a  reply  was  returned,  that  Lady  Trench 
called  to  express  her  thanks.  She  was  much  struck, 
at  that  visit,  by  the  manner  and  bearing  of  the  eldest 
son,  and,  in  consequence,  an  intimacy  grew  up  be- 

[216] 


PROVIDENCE  OPENS   THE  GATE 

tween  the  families.  This  trivial  incident  is  used  by 
Eobertson  to  show  that  God  orders  all  things.  "If 
I  had  not  met  a  certain  person,  I  should  not  have 
changed  my  profession ;  if  I  had  not  known  a  certain 
lady,  I  should  not  probably  have  met  this  person: 
(Mr.  Davies  who  believed  that  he  saw  in  Robertson 
all  the  elements  that  would  form  a  fine  minister, 
and  who  labored  to  dissuade  him  from  entering  the 
army)  if  that  lady  had  not  had  a  delicate  daughter 
who  was  disturbed  by  the  barking  of  my  dog: 
if  my  dog  had  not  barked  that  night,  I  should  now 
have  been  in  the  the  Dragoons,  or  fertilizing  the  soil  of 
India. ' '  Then  who  can  say  that  these  things  were  not 
ordered,  and  that  the  merest  trifles  are  not  signposts 
reading, 

This  is  the  way, 

Walk  ye  in  it.  Human  nature  responds  to  the  call  of 
duty.  This  appears  nowhere  more  sublime  than  in  the 
person  of  these  young  heroes  and  heroines  who  are  not 
so  scarce  as  people  suppose.  Almost  anyone  can  be  a 
hero  on  a  grand  scale  with  the  eyes  of  an  admiring 
world  looking  on.  There  is  no  evidence  that  the  little 
maid  was  ever  applauded  or  hurrahed.  She  rose 
right  up  out  of  her  menial  position  into  the  useful 
religious  life.  She  did  her  work  where  she  was 
placed.  Some  of  the  noblest  heroisms  have  been 
achieved  in  the  lowliest  conditions.  Not  complain- 
ing of  her  place,  but  shining  in  it,  she  illustrates 
the  truth  that  it  is  the  lesser  stars  that  twinkle  the 
most.  In  the  school  of  Mr.  Thomas  Knibb  in  the 

[217] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

island  of  Jamaica,  was  a  roguish  boy,  who  violated 
the  rules  of  the  school  by  swearing,  and  stood  in 
line  to  be  punished.  His  sister  went  to  Mr.  Knibb 
with  eyes  brimful  of  tears  and  begged  that  she, 
instead  might  take  his  punishment,  to  which  Mr. 
Knibb  consented.  Looking  at  the  wider  school  of 
life, 

Seeing  its  boys  and  men, 

unless  we  have  some  help  as  in  the  case  of  Naaman,  we 
might  fail  to  discover  and  applaud  the  obscure  hero- 
ines to  whom  the  world  is  most  indebted  for  the  great 
results  that  appear  in  other  lives  than  their  own. 

If  ever  there  was  a  self-made,  self-contained 
man,  it  was  that  giant  leader  of  his  people,  the 
emancipator  of  the  slaves.  Yet  it  was  Sally  Bush, 
to  use  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  words,  who  first  made  him 
feel  like  a  human  being.  She  appeared  to  make  a 
new  boy  of  him.  This  daughter  of  genius  lies  buried 
in  an  obscure  grave,  while  he  has  a  monument  that 
pierces  the  skies. 

Scarcely  a  century  has  elapsed  after  the  death 
of  Mohammed  when  his  energetic  and  elastic  doc- 
trines prevailed  widely  in  Asia.  His  calls  to  prayer 
resounded  from  the  spires  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constan- 
tinople to  the  gate  of  Vienna. 

Khadijahs's  faith  made  him. 

Sometimes  a  man's  faith  needs  a  support.  He  loved 
her  because  she  believed  in  him  when  no  one  else 
did,  and  when  he  was  not  quite  sure  that  he  be- 
lieved in  himself.  He  made  history.  He  made 

[218] 


PROVIDENCE  OPENS  THE  GATE 

himself  a  great  name.  She  made  him.  Just  as 
Monica's  faith  and  prayer  made  St.  Augustine,  Miss 
Frazier's  faith  made  Hugh  Miller  an  author. 
"Gentlemen,"  said  the  wife  of  General  Greene  to 
some  callers  who  were  regretting  that  there  was  no 
means  of  cleaning  the  green  seed  from  the  cotton. 
"  Apply  to  my  young  friend,  Mr.  Whitney.  He  can 
make  anything."  He  had  gone  to  Georgia  to  be- 
come a  private  teacher,  and  on  reaching  there  found 
another  person  had  been  employed,  leaving  him 
without  either  resources  or  friends,  except  the 
Greenes.  He  modestly  said  he  never  had  seen  cotton- 
seed in  his  life.  Separating  one  pound  of  the  clean 
staple,  from  the  seed,  was  a  day *s  work  for  a  woman. 
The  time  usually  devoted  to  it,  was  the  evening, 
when  the  slaves,  men,  women,  and  children,  were 
collected  in  circles.  There  was  one  whose  duty  it 
was  to  rouse  the  dosing  and  quicken  the  indolent. 
The  amount  of  labor  required  to  separate  the  seed 
from  the  staple  made  the  raising  of  cotton  prohibi- 
tive. 

The  word  "gin" 

is  a  contraction  for  engine.  More  than  any  other  one 
thing  the  cotton-gin  occasioned  the  Civil  War.  It  sub- 
stantially gave  the  South,  from  the  first,  three  million 
dollars  annually.  Slave-holding  was  made  profitable 
and  became  an  institution  worth  fighting  for  and  ex- 
tending. What  a  revolution  in  personal  and  national, 
industrial  and  mechanical,  political  and  economic 
history  this  single  invention  wrought.  But  just  as 

[  219  ] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

Naaman's  good  fortune  is  traced  to  the  faith  of  the 
little  maid,  the  imperishable  fame  of  Eli  "Whitney 
turns  upon  the  faith  of  a  woman  that  he  could  invent 
anything.  He  had  never  constructed  a  cotton-gin,  but 
she  believed  he  could,  and  he  did.  Expert  opinion 
states  that  Vassar  College  made  the  greatest  contribu- 
tion to  the  education  of  women.  It  did  not  raise  the 
question,  How  can  we  bring  them  to  our  ideas  and  the- 
ories and  standards,  but  How  can  we  do  the  most  for 
the  women  themselves.  In  the  presence  of  twenty 
or  thirty  gentlemen,  Matthew  Vassar  entered  a  room 
carrying  a  small  tin  box.  Sixteen  years  before, 
standing  in  the  quadrangle  of  Guys  Hospital  in 
London,  he  read  this  inscription, 

Thomas  Guy, 

Sole  founder  of  this  hospital 
In  his  lifetime. 

The  words  "in  his  lifetime "  were  the  iron  that 
entered  his  soul  and  excited  his  emulation.  To  one 
of  the  gentlemen  present,  the  key,  of  the  tin  box 
was  passed.  He  had  been  appointed  President  of 
the  Board  of  Trustees.  The  box  contained  bonds 
and  other  securities  valued  at  four  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  dollars.  At  the  college's  third  com- 
mencement Mr.  Vassar  began  to  read  his  annual  ad- 
dress. His  voice  was  somewhat  feeble.  He  had 
nearly  concluded  when  his  voice  faltered  and  soon 
ceased.  The  paper  dropped  from  his  hand.  He 
leaned  back  in  his  chair.  He  was  dead.  He  took 

[220] 


PROVIDENCE  OPENS  THE  GATE 

the  ground  in  his  presentation  speech  that  woman 
had  received,  from  the  Creator,  an  intellectual 
constitution,  the  equivalent  of  man's.  His  father 
was  an  obstinate,  strong-minded,  ignorant  man,  with 
the  result  that  the  boy, 

Assisted  by  his  mother, 

ran  away  from  home.  With  all  his  little  property  tied 
up  in  a  cotton  handkerchief,  he  walked  to  a  ferry 
eight  miles,  accompanied  by  his  mother,  who  there 
at  their  parting  gave  him  seventy-five  cents  and 
her  blessing.  Not  an  even  dollar,  not,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  half  dollar,  but  seventy-five  cents.  The 
further  point  is,  Matthew  took  it,  seventy-five  cents. 
She  stood,  crying,  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  until 
she  saw  her  boy  starting  in  the  world  with  these 
seventy-five  cents  that  his  mother  gave  him  at  their 
solemnities,  safely  landed  on  the  opposite  shore. 
Within  twenty-four  hours  he  had  a  boy's  position 
in  which,  by  hard  work,  for  five  years,  he  saved  $150. 
We  know  his  monument.  We  know  his  monumental 
work.  But  at  the  foundation  is  that  woman's  faith, 
her  confidence  in  her  son,  her  tears,  the  equal  pathos 
of  her  gift,  the  love  that  sustained  her  in  an  eight- 
mile  walk.  The  poet  Gray  wrote  sadly  that  he  had 
made  a  discovery,  that  we  can  have  but  one  mother. 
We  all  make  it,  sooner  or  later.  She  invests  her  all 
in  us,  her  heart,  her  hopes,  her  prayers,  her  tears. 
She  is  our  guardian  spirit.  She  spends  her  whole 
life  smoothing  the  way  for  us.  Our  success  is  the 

[221] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

answer  to  her  prayers.  What  we  do  is  the  only 
return  she  gets  on  her  investment.  Wherever  the 
story  of  Vassar  College  is  told  throughout  the  whole 
world,  it  is  also  her  memorial,  and  a  proof  of  her 
faith  and  confiding  love. 


[222] 


CHAPTER  XXIV 
BEADY,  WAITING  TO  BE   HEROES 

Hast  thou  seen  all  this  great  multitude?  I  will  deliver  it  into 

thine   hand.      By   whom?      By  the   young   men  of  the  princes   of   the 

provinces.      Then    he    said,    Who    Shall    order  the    battle?      And    he 
answered,    Thou.      1   Kings   20:13,    14. 

General  Grant  graduated  at  the  middle  of  his 
class,  while  Lee  graduated  well  up  toward  the  head. 
Yet  the  college  cannot  change  its  markings.  They 
are  not  final,  however.  Greatness  in  the  world, 
honorable  distinction,  real  ability,  are  still  to  be 
tested  by  action.  At  Appomattox  Grant  passed  to 
the  head  and  Lee  went  to  the  foot.  Lincoln  pro- 
posed to  save  the  Union.  "By  whom?"  By  an 
unsuspected  hero.  John  Adams  was  approached  by 
his  father  (himself  named  John)  thus,  "It  is  now 
time  for  you  to  commence  your  life  work.  What 
business  do  you  wish  to  follow?"  The  boy  said  he 
would  be  a  farmer.  Tired,  hot,  discouraged,  un- 
happy, he  said,  "Father,  I  have  been  thinking  today. 
I  should  like  to  try  my  books."  In  Harvard  the 
students  were  all  enrolled  according  to  social  posi- 
tion, and  John  Adams,  our  second  President,  was 
the  fourteenth  in  his  class,  an  unsuspected  hero. 
But  the  British  government  imposed  taxes  which 
were  evaded,  and  the  matter  was  brought  before 
the  Superior  Court.  Adams  was  present  and  listened 

[223] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

intently,  and  afterward  wrote,  "Otis  was  a  flame 
of  fire.  American  Independence  was  then  and  there 
born.  Every  man  appeared  to  me  ready  to  get  away 
and  take  up  arms.  I  do  say,  in  the  most  solemn 
manner  that  Mr.  Otis  breathed  into  this  nation  the 
breath  of  life."  The  torch  of  an  unsuspected  hero 
was  lighted  by  that  flame  of  fire.  John  Adams,  like 
John  the  Baptist,  a  prophet  who  became  more  than 
a  prophet,  himself  was  transfigured.  He  became  like 
the  great  king  whom  Samuel  anointed  and  then 
kissed,  who  was  turned  into  another  man.  Hear 
what  Mr.  Jefferson  says  of  him ; — ' '  The  great  pillar 
of  support  to  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
the  ablest  advocate  and  champion  on  the  floor  of 
the  House  was  John  Adams. 

He  was  our  Colossus." 

Hear  what  our  greatest  orator  says  of  him,  the  later 
sentences  being  probably  the  finest  burst  of  elo- 
quence in  our  language!  Adams  and  Jefferson  are 
no  more.  On  our  fiftieth  anniversary,  the  great  day 
of  national  jubilee,  in  the  very  hour  of  public  re- 
joicing in  the  midst  of  echoing  and  re-echoing 
voices  of  thanksgiving,  while  their  own  names  were 
on  all  tongues,  they  took  their  flight  together  to  the 
world  of  spirits.  Their  fame  remains,  for  with 
American  liberty  it  rose,  and  with  American  liberty 
only  can  it  perish.  It  was  the  last  swelling  peal  of 
yonder  choir:  "Their  bodies  are  buried  in  peace, 
but  their  name  liveth  evermore."  I  catch  that 

[224] 


READY,  WAITING   TO   BE   HEROES 

solemn  song,  I  echo  that  lofty  strain  of  funeral 
triumph,  " Their  name  liveth  evermore." 

At  Salem,  Mass.,  the  public  squares  were  black 
with  people  who  had  gathered  to  see  their  soldiers 
start  on  their  way  to  the  Cuban  war.  The  great 
popular  demonstration  rose  to  a  sublime  climax 
when  a  solitary  open  landau,  was  seen  approaching, 
accompanied  by  a  band  of  music,  escorted  even  by 
the  mayor  on  foot  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  city, 
containing  Francis  B.  Cahill,  a  mere  boy,  a  sailor, 
with  his  crutches  resting  beside  him.  He  received 
nearly  mortal  injury  when  the  ill-fated  Maine  went 
down  into  the  murky  waters  of  Havana's  benighted 
bay.  That  boy,  however,  stood  in  a  dutiful  relation  to 
a  great  government,  and  now  the  whole  country 
stands  ready  to  do  him  homage. 

A  true  soldier  has  ever  been  dear  to  the  popular 
heart.  If  the  risk  he  takes  is  coupled  with  duty, 
all  men  reverence  it.  The  fine  stories  of  the  world 
are  made  up  of  dangerous,  dutiful  facts.  In  the 
morning  a  sailor  can  be  just  an  ordinary  boy,  but 
at  night,  if  found  in  the  place  of  duty,  if  his  position 
is  contested,  he  is  made  a  hero. 

"He  gripped  the  black  peril  like  a  vise, 

And  as  he  grappled  saw 

That  life  is  one  of  sacrifice, 

And  duty  one  with  law." 

If  he  had  been  earlier  seen  at  his  employment,  or 
upon  the  street,  he  might  have  passed,  an  unsuspected 

[226] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

hero.  There  is  a  commander 's  baton  in  every  sol- 
dier's knapsack.  What  other  surprise  has  touched 
us  so  profoundly  as  the  latent  undiscovered  earnest- 
ness of  young  people.  But  a  particular  reason  why 
some  men  underestimate  our  resources  is  that  it  is 
in  them  to  insist  on  undervaluing  whatever  exists. 
With  this  tendency  goes  usually  the  habit  of  decrying 
one's  town.  This  mental  quality  seems  to  co-exist 
even  with  an  intense  love  of  country.  These  men 
are  sure  that  their  particular  town  is  the  worst 
place  for  gossip  on  the  globe.  And,  so  if  this  were 
not  dispraise  enough,  they  will  refer  to  their  town 
as  dead  and  alive  places,  or  make  some  allusion  to 
their  having  gone  to  seed  or  prove  that  the  best 
families  have  gone  up  higher,  or  will  apply  the 
epithets, 

Sleepy,  deserted.  Deity-forsaken, 
or  sum  up  their  valuation  and  then  style  the  place  a 
one-horse  town.  Becoming  a  habit,  it  works  without 
discrimination.  It  does  not  look  for  excellencies,  any- 
way it  does  not  find  them.  That  it  works  without  much 
discrimination  is  shown  by  the  fact,  that  two  places 
in  the  same  New  England  state,  can  be  located  within 
a  half  dozen  miles  of  each  other,  and  one  will  have 
a  well-known  place  pride,  and  the  other  will  sadly 
lack  it.  And  neither  of  these  estimates  will  be  based 
on  the  distinctive  merits  of  the  case,  but  stands  as 
the  result  of  the  collective  opinion  of  persons  whose 
underestimate  came  from  their  implanted  turn  of 
mind. 

[226] 


READY,  WAITING   TO  BE   HEROES 

How  is  it  that  we  find  our  neighbors,  ordinary 
men,  doing  extraordinary  things?  It  is  chiefly 
because,  as  William  James  so  forcefully  points  out 
that  as  a  rule  men  habitually  use  only  a  small  part 
of  the  forces  which  they  actually  possess,  which 
they  might  use  under  appropriate  conditions.  We 
all  feel  more  or  less  alive  on  different  days,  and 
know  that  there  are  energies  slumbering  within 
which  conditions  do  not  call  out.  "Our  fires  are 
damped  and  our  drafts  are  checked."  We  did  not 
get  the  full  measures  of  the  forces  inherent  in  some 
of  our  Presidents  until  they  were  made  to  carry  a 
great  burden.  Instead  of  crushing  them,  it  sustained 
and  strengthened  them,  as  in  the  case  of  the  President 
during  the  Civil  War,  and  the  President  during  the 
German  War.  The  youth  who  have  gone  to  the 
front  and  have  been  disciplined  and  tested  have 
so  conspicuously  strengthened  their  mental,  moral, 
and  physical  stature  that  they  will  become,  for  na- 
tional purposes,  the  war  being  over, 

Our  second  line  of  defense. 

When  the  peoples  wanted  presidents,  governors, 
and  disciplined  men  for  other  positions  they  chose 
soldiers  in  astonishing  numbers,  whom  colleges  had 
never  decorated  with  titles.  The  inner  lamp  had 
been  lighted.  Their  lives  were  following  a  higher 
bent,  their  abilities  had  been  both  developed  and 
disclosed.  Hast  thou  seen  all  this  great  multi- 
tude? That's  the  situation.  I  will  deliver  it  into 
Thine  hand.  This  had  been  too  much  to  hope.  By 

[227] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

whom?  By  the  forces  you  have,  whose  availability 
is  not  realized,  the  young  men  of  the  princes  of  the 
providences.  Then  he  said,  Who  shall  order  the 
battle?  and  he  answered,  Thou. 

It  must  be  evident  to  all  of  you  who  are  ob- 
servers of  the  signs  of  the  times  that  the  generation 
which  is  now  coming  upon  the  field  of  action  is 
destined  to  live  in  stirring  times.  During  their  day 
will  probably  be  wrought  out  a  more  general  and 
vital  change  in  religious  methods  of  work  than  in 
any  one  epoch  since  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era.  It  would  be  easy  to  show  that  during  the  past 
few  years  a  general  preparation  has  been  in  pro- 
gress. The  rays  are  beginning  to  focus,  and  the  place 
where  they  seem  bound  to  converge  is  not  remote 
from  where  we  now  are.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  live 
at  such  a  time.  The  days  are  not  without  privilege, 
and  certain  it  is  they  are  not  without  peril.  Ques- 
tions that  once  were  confined  to  a  few  extraordinary 
minds  are  now  to  be  popularized.  The  voices  of 
most  men  were  lately  but  echoes  of  their  chieftains, 
but  now  matters  are  to  be  so  reversed  that  those  who 
are  leaders  only  voice  the  popular  sentiment,  and 
proclaim  what  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  has  come 
to  exist. 

A  burst  of  patriotic  feeling  proves  that  people 
in  national  emergencies  rise  above  the  consideration 
of  the  loaves  and  fishes.  It  is  the  last  word  about 
expense  to  say  that  anything  costs  like  war.  But 

[228] 


READY,  WAITING   TO   BE   HEROES 

what  wins  the  war?  Man  power  at  the  front  and 
in  the  supply  of  equipment. 

What  builds  a  business? 

Is  it  money?  That  is  the  popular  belief.  Many 
suppose  that  the  problem  of  a  business  is  solved 
when  they  have  money.  They  might  have  it  thus, 
by  inheritance  and  not  have  it  long.  When  con- 
templating successful  men  some  persons  say,  Oh, 
yes,  their  money  made  them.  As  it  is  a  sophistry 
to  prove  a  thing  by  an  exception,  the  general  answer 
is,  No,  money  did  not  make  them.  They  made 
money.  Observation  teaches  from  actual  cases, 
that  there  is  far  more  possiblity  and  much  more 
probability  of  succeeding  without  capital,  at  the 
start  than  with  it.  The  very  discipline  required  to 
overcome  difficulties  and  get  under  way  in  busi- 
ness is  just  what  is  needed  to  insure  success.  The 
very  lack  of  capital  is  the  condition  of  knowing  how 
to  handle  it  when  it  comes.  A  feeling  allied  to 
despair  steals  at  times  into  young  men's  hearts,  even 
if  they  be  of  good  faith  and  fiber  when  they  feel  in 
their  empty  pockets,  and  then  look  into  their  empty 
hands.  There  is  the  stern  battle  of  life  to  be  won. 
"By  whom?"  "By  the  young  men  of  the  princes 
of  the  provinces."  "Who  shall  order  the  battle?" 
"Thou."  Young  men  are  at  the  front  not  only  in 
times  of  war  but  also  in  the  great  periods  of  indus- 
try and  enterprise.  The  arrangement  of  having  a 
"money  partner,"  already  having  made  his  way, 
and  then  a  "business  partner,"  and  then  a  "manu- 

[229] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

facturing,"  a  "managing,"  or  "practical"  partner, 
here  is  a  young  man's  opportunity.  It  is  impossible 
now  to  discriminate  between  men  by  calling  some  of 
them  members  of  the  laboring  classes.  In  the  matter 
of  pay  you  cannot  divide  between  them,  for  some 
who  are  employed  get  more  money  than  some  others 
who  are  employers.  Who  could  ever  draw  the  line 
between  the  laboring  class  and  others?  In  what 
class  would  Webster  stand,  who  distinctly  states 
that  he,  all  his  life  a  very  early  riser,  worked  twelve 
hours  a  day  for  forty  years?  Many  clergymen  work 
seven  days  a  week  and  do  not  reserve  for  themselves 
their  evenings.  Organizations,  which  are  our  forms 
of  the  highest  life,  must  have  the  young  men  of  the 
princes  of  the  provinces  to  keep  them  in  all  their 
extended  parts  alive,  and  they  often  have  princely 
salaries.  Men  used  to  talk  of  being  independent. 
No  one  in  business  now  is  in  independent  circum- 
stances. Men  are  less  so  than  formerly.  The  very 
word  civilization  tells  the  story,  fitted  to  live  with 
others  in  a  city.  To  be  independent  one  must  return 
to  the  condition  of  a  savage.  The  greatest  men, 
and  the  richest,  are  the  most  dependent.  These 
persons,  too,  are  human  enough  to  crave  sympathy, 
but  they  have  to  live,  for  the  most  part,  without  it. 
Can  a  contractor  be  independent?  There  are  two 
hundred  operations  in  making  a  shoe,  over  1000  in 
producing  a  watch.  In  some  of  the  Rochester  fac- 
tories more  than  fifty  different  persons  are  employed 
in  making  a  man's  coat.  In  the  professions  similar 

[230] 


READY,  WAITING   TO   BE   HEROES 

specializations  are  in  vogue.  At  the  turn  of  the  new 
year  business  changes  are  affected  and  young  life 
is  introduced  into  the  commercial  houses. 

God  is  a  great  business  doer. 

He  is  Chief  factor  in  a  house  that  is  called  by  His 
name.  But  little  more  than  a  generation  ago,  the  idea 
of  partnership  in  doing  good  took  hold  of  the  public 
mind.  Hast  thou  seen  this  great  multitude  of  non- 
adherents  to  the  Son  of  Man  ?  I  will  deliver  into  thine 
hand.  By  whom?  By  the  young  men  of  the  princes 
of  the  provinces. 

SLOGANS 

The  only  thing  that  will  overcome  the  indescrib- 
able feeling  of  halt  in  religious  affairs  is  a  rallying 
cry,  a  shibboleth,  a  slogan,  a  vitalizing  quantity  or 
personality  that  shall  start  the  hearty  acclaim.  Cer- 
tain ideas,  having  a  catchy  name,  The  Flag,  The 
Union,  The  Freedom  of  the  Seas,  The  World  Safe 
for  Democracy,  call  up  the  mind  and  unlock  the 
energies  of  the  young.  They  throw  off  the  chill. 
They  inspire  a  new  crusade.  This  always  marks  the 
farthest  advance  in  mankind.  This  irresponsible 
volcanic  action  is  not  manufactured,  as  men  of  weak 
passions  are  inclined  to  assume.  It  is  the  irresist- 
able  overflow  of  full  hearts ;  and  if,  on  occasion,  these 
should  hold  their  peace,  the  stone  would  cry  out  of 
the  wall  and  the  beam  out  of  the  timber  would 
answer  it.  It  is  good  to  be  generously  affected  al- 
ways in  a  good  thing.  Religious  teachers  who  de- 
precate enthusiasm,  and  exalt  what  they  call  a  sober 

[231] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

standard  of  feeling,  which  rigidly  represses  its  emo- 
tion, will  please  keep  in  mind  that  an  outburst  of 
loyalty,  voiced  almost  rapturously,  was  among  the 
few  things  that  our  Saviour  unreservedly  praised. 
He  knew  that  religion  or  any  other  great  cause 
goes  down  when  it  loses  the  power  of  exciting  the 
highest,  most  intelligent,  and  most  courageous  social 
enthusiasm. 

Patriotism  has  been  a  passion  with  the  finest 
spirits  in  every  age.  With  every  fresh  uprising  of 
the  people  there  comes  a  revival  of  loyalty,  of  brave, 
unselfish  devotion  to  country,  which  results  in  an 
improvement  in  the  character  of  the  men  who  are 
chosen  to  responsible  places. 

Turner,  the  greatest  of  the  British  painters, 
has  left  one  piece,  which,  had  he  never  touched  his 
brush  again,  should  have  rendered  him  immortal. 
It  is  called  ' '  The  Fighting  Temeraire,  tugged  to  her 
last  berth,  to  be  broken  up."  The  sun  is  setting, 
flooding  all  the  sky  with  splendor.  Amidst  the 
crowded  shipping  of  a  busy  port  a  huge  battle  ship 
of  the  line  is  towed  slowly  up  the  channel.  Her 
battles  are  over.  Old  and  shattered  and  useless, 
they  have  doomed  her  to  be  broken  up.  But  to  the 
last  she  bears  her  name  the  * '  Temeraire, ' '  the  ' '  Fear- 
less." Under  existing  conditions  the  soldier  of  the 
cross,  as  well  as  the  standard  bearer  in  the  field, 
must  reveal  a  capacity  for  courage.  Simple  duty  has 
no  place  for  fear. 

[232] 


CHAPTER  XXV 
SOMETHING  ABOUT  DEBTS  AND  DEBTORS 

I  am  debtor.     Rom.  1 :  14. 

Two  things  have  come  into  our  hands,  by  Rev. 
Mark  Guy  Pearse,  for  which  we  cannot  be  too  thank- 
ful. One  of  them  is  the  story  of  Daniel  Quorum,  and 
the  other  is  his  experience  as  a  boy  of  14  returning 
from  Germany,  where  he  had  been  at  school,  to  his 
home  in  the  beautiful  wilds  of  Cornwall.  He  stayed 
in  London  long  enough  to  spend  all  his  money,  except 
sufficient  to  pay  his  fare  home.  He  traveled  by 
train  to  Bristol — the  rail  only  went  as  far  then.  He 
went  on  board  the  vessel  to  carry  him  home,  and 
thought,  when  he  had  paid  the  money  for  his  pas- 
sage, that  that  included  all.  He  was  very  hungry 
and  indulged  freely  in  the  pleasures  of  the  table. 

At  the  end  of  the  journey,  a  dapper  little  stew- 
ard, with  a  gold  band  round  his  cap,  came  to  him 
and  presented  him  his  bill.  He  told  him  he  had  no 
money.  Then,  said  he,  "you  should  not  have  ordered 
the  things  you  did/'  He  asked  him  his  name.  He 
told  him.  He  took  him  by  the  hand,  shut  up  his 
book,  and  said,  "I  never  thought  that  I  should  live 
to  see  you. ' '  Then  he  told  him  how,  when  he  had  lost 
his  father,  his  mother  was  in  great  distress,  and  the 

[233] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

boy's  father  had  been  so  kind  to  her  that  he  made 
a  solemn  promise  that,  if  he  ever  had  the  opportu- 
nity, he  would  show  kindness  to  one  of  his;  so  he 
took  charge  of  him,  paid  his  bills,  gave  him  five 
shillings,  and  put  him  into  a  boat  with  some  sailors, 
who  rowed  him  in  fine  style  to  the  shore.  His  father 
met  him,  and  he  said:  ''Father,  it  is  a  good  thing 
to  have  a  good  father;"  and  he  told  him  what  had 
taken  place.  "My  son,"  said  he,  "I  passed  the 
kindness  on  to  him  long  ago,  and  now  he  has  passed 
it  on  to  you.  Mind,  as  you  grow  up,  you  pass  it  on 
to  others."  One  day,  as  he  was  going  by  train  with 
a  first-class  ticket,  he  saw  a  lad  at  the  third-class 
ticket  office, 

Rubbing  his  eyes  to  keep  down  the  tears. 
He  asked  him  what  his  trouble  was,  and  the  lad  told 
him  he  had  not  enough  money  for  his  fare  by  four- 
pence,  and  he  wanted  so  to  go  by  that  train,  as  his 
friends  were  expecting  him.  He  gave  him  a  shilling, 
and  the  lad  went,  got  his  ticket  and  brought  him  the 
change.  He  told  him  to  keep  it,  and  said  he  was 
going  to  ride  with  him.  Then  in  the  carriage,  he 
told  the  lad  the  story  of  how  he  was  treated  in  the 
boat.  "And  now,"  he  said,  "I  want  you,  if  ever  you 
have  the  opportunity,  to  pass  it  on  to  others."  He 
got  out  at  the  junction,  and  as  the  train  left  the 
station,  the  lad  waved  his  handkerchief  and  said, 
"I  will  pass  it  on."  He  is  now  a  benevolent  agency 
turned  loose  in  the  world,  and  on  him  rests 
the  burden  of  unpaid  debt.  There  is  now  a  force 

[234] 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DEBTS  AND  DEBTORS 

in  him  which  acts  like  the  mainspring  in  a  clock 
that  keeps  it  running.  He  may  be  able  to  pay  only 
by  installments,  but  he  has  the  disposition  and  is 
actually  seeking  opportunity.  He  adopts  the  Apos- 
tles precept,  Owe  no  man  anything.  Suppose  we  all 
should  arise  and  pay  our  debts.  The  day  of  the  Lord, 
that  great  day,  would  seem  to  be  dawning,  and  the 
face  of  society  would  be  changed. 

Debt  measures  what  ought  to  be  done. 
We  are  debtors,  to  our  native  land,  whose  stars  and 
stripes  break  out  upon  the  free  air,  as  a  pledge  of  our 
liberty.  This  land  has  been  bought  for  us.  To  seek  the 
price,  we  visit  the  silent  battlefields.  Do  we  owe  noth- 
ing to  all  those  men  whose  swords  now  hang  upon  our 
walls?  Are  we  not  debtors  to  humanity,  seeing  that 
the  ages  have  built  for  us  this  our  world  ?  In  a  report 
to  the  Harvard  overseers  it  was  shown  that  no  man 
pays  his  way.  In  his  tuition  is  not  reckoned  the 
endowments  and  libraries,  the  value  of  the  grounds, 
and  the  prizes.  That  man  pays  most  of  his  dues,  whose 
unfailing  hammer  rings  earliest  in  the  morning  and 
latest  at  night,  seeking  to  discharge  his  duty  and 
lessen  his  debt.  Having  been  already  paid  in  ad- 
vance, and  having  thus  become  trustee  to  a  trust, 
the  apostle  stands  willing  to  be  commissioned  even 
to  the  Greeks  and  barbarians.  The  fact,  that  he  is 
so  far  from  feeling  under  the  slightest  obligation  to 
them,  in  themselves  considered,  gives  to  the  text  all 
its  point.  He  cannot  be  indebted  to  the  barbarians, 
just  as  the  world  owes  nothing  to  the  Turk,  who  came 

[235] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

from  the  obscure  East,  the  home  of  barbarism,  the 
cradle  of  brute  force,  the  lair  of  savage  cruelty. 
The  Turk  is  a  barbarian  literally,  an  alien,  an  in- 
vader, a  destroyer,  a  minus  quantity  in  civilization. 
He  desecrated  the  noble  architecture  and  art  of 
Greece,  and  looked  upon  the  Alexandrine  library, 
with  that  disfavor,  that  led  to  its  destruction. 

At  Athens,  unduly  influenced  by  his  environ- 
ment, becoming  classical  and  delightful,  St.  Paul 
preached  to  the  Greeks  with  uncommon  eloquence, 
yet  nowhere  did  he  so  completely  fail.  He  quoted 
from  their  poets  and  was  far  away  from  the  hiding 
of  his  power.  Nobody  realized  this  better  than  him- 
self. He  left  at  once,  never  to  return.  He  came 
again  into  this  very  part  of  Greece,  but  passed  Athens 
by,  once  and  again,  without  repeating  his  ill-starred 
visit.  Notice  his  change  of  key  at  Corinth  where 
he  strikes  a  better  note.  When  I  came  to  you,  I 
came  not  with  the  excellency  of  speech,  or  of  wis- 
dom (as  I  did  with  the  Greeks).  I  determined  not 
to  know  anything  among  you  save  Jesus  Christ  and 
him  crucified.  Saint  Paul  wrote  epistles  to  the 
Corinthians,  none  to  the  Greeks.  There  was  nothing 
there  to  address.  His  use  of  declamation  was  a 
closed  incident.  While  the  Greeks  and  barbarians 
had  no  attractions  for  him  still  I  am  debtor,  both  to 
the  Greeks  and  barbarians.  He  felt  a  burning  fire 
shut  up  in  his  bones. 

Still,  still  I  am  debtor. 
Dr.  William  M.  Taylor  used  to  tell  of  a  trust  conveyed 

[236] 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DEBTS  AND  DEBTORS 

to  his  grandfather  who,  over  poor  roads,  steep  and 
stony,  was  on  the  way  to  mill  with  a  great  sack  of 
grain  on  the  back  of  a  horse.  Old  Dobbin  stumbled 
and  his  heavy  load  fell  to  the  ground.  Beside  the 
beast's  burden  the  honest  farmer  felt  the  weight  of 
his  three-score  years  and  ten,  and  could  not  replace 
the  grist.  By  and  by  he  saw  a  gentleman  on  horse- 
back coming  near  and  he  thought,  Perhaps  he  will 
help  me.  But  as  he  drew  near  he  discovered  he  was 
the  Earl  who  dwelt  in  the  neighboring  castle,  and 
his  heart  sank  within  him  for,  he  thought,  he  could 
not  muster  courage  to  ask  assistance  from  him.  But 
he  had  no  such  occasion,  for  the  Earl  was  a  gentle- 
man, by  a  higher  patent  than  that  of  any  earthly 
nobility,  and  when  he  saw  the  old  man's  need  he 
dismounted  and  said :  "Here,  John,  let  me  help  you. " 
So  between  them,  they  replaced  the  sack  on  the 
animal's  back.  Then,  said  John,  who  was  a  gentle- 
man, too,  although  he  did  wear  homespun — or,  as 
they  call  it  in  Scotland,  "hodden-gray" — took  off 
his  Kilmarnock  bonnet  from  his  head  and  said: 
"Please  your  lordship,  how  shall  I  ever  thank  you 
for  the  great  kindness  you  have  done  for  me?"  "Very 
easily,  John,"  was  the  reply;  "whenever  you  see 
a  man  needing  your  help  as  much  as  you  were  need- 
ing mine  just  now,  help  him,  and  what  will  be  thank- 
ing me."  Now  there  is  something  due  from  John 
Taylor,  and  our  word  "ought"  implies  something 
that  is  owed,  just  as  duty  implies  something  that  is 
due.  In  King  IV  Hostess  remarks  to  Prince  Henry, 

[237] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

"Falstaff  slanders  you,  my  lord,  and  said  this  other 
day  that  you  ought  a  thousand  pounds."  Look  at 
that  little  scroggy  monosyllable  ought.  It  has  no 
beauty.  Pronounce  it. 

It  has  no  melody. 

Analyze  it,  and  it  has  but  two  phonetic  elements  hid- 
den under  five  crooked  and  hooked,  written  characters. 
But  weigh  it  and  it  is  the  heaviest  word  in  our  lan- 
guage, the  name  of  God  excepted.  Like  a  piece  of  me- 
teoric stone,  it  comes  to  us  from  another  world.  It  is 
a  pilgrim  out  of  eternity.  It  refuses  to  be  parsed. 
You  cannot  run  it  in  the  paradigms  of  speech.  I 
ought,  that  is  first  person  singular ;  you  ought ;  they 
ought.  You  are  declining  your  pronoun.  Why  do 
you  not  conjugate  the  verb  ought?  They  ought. 
What  tense?  Call  it  present,  or  call  it  past.  You 
can  call  it  anything.  What  would  be  the  future. 
You  can't  change  it.  The  ten  commandments  will 
not  budge.  What  is  the  past  perfect?  I  had  ought. 
That  is  ungrammatical.  Drop  it.  It  is  not  like  an 
ordinary  modern  word.  It  is  a  mandate  from  heaven, 
fixing  its  grip  on  the  soul. 

The  tenacity  of  its  hold  is  shown  in  the  Reuben 
Hoar  Library  in  the  little  town  of  Littleton.  A 
country  trader,  who  kept  the  village  store,  by  slow 
and  persistent  economy  had  acquired  a  small  prop- 
erty and  with  it  the  confidence  of  the  community. 
Many  entrusted  him  with  their  small  savings.  Then 
followed  the  old  story  of  a  dishonest  partner,  finan- 
cial ruin,  the  loss,  not  only  of  the  fortune  and  hard 

[238] 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DEBTS  AND  DEBTORS 

earnings  of  a  lifetime,  but  with  them  also  the  funds 
held  in  trust  for  widows  and  friends.  Business 
failure  carried  with  it  severer  penalties  then  than 
now.  The  law  did  not  then  give  its  present  easy 
avenue  of  return  to  commercial  life.  Before  him 
were  the  opening  doors  of  the  debtors'  jail.  But 
there  was  Reuben  Hoar,  a  plain  Massachusetts 
farmer,  a  neighbor,  customer,  attendant  of  the  same 
church,  largest  local  creditor,  who  was  under  no 
obligation  whatever  to  his  bankrupt  townsman,  ex- 
cept what  humanity  dictates  toward  a  dumb  animal 
fallen  in  the  streets,  who  said  to  him,  "Let  me  be  a 
brother  to  you. 

/  will  stand  behind  you. 

Go  on  with  your  store,  keep  a  stout  heart,  pay  up  your 
debts.  What  you  need  I  will  supply."  He  at  once 
came  to  his  feet,  retrieved  his  trade,  his  honor,  his 
fortune,  his  position  in  the  community.  But  there  was 
a  son  of  fifteen  who  shared  this  ordeal,  to  whom,  with 
a  boy's  sensitiveness,  it  meant  tears,  a  deep  resolve 
and  an  imprint  burned  into  his  soul  with  letters  of 
fire.  As  he  prospered,  he  never  forgot  the  kindness 
to  his  father,  nor  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  he  was 
digged.  A  fine  library  was  reared  at  Littleton.  It 
is  a  grateful  tribute  to  Reuben  Hoar,  and  bears  alone 
his  name.  I  do  remember  my  debts  this  day ;  by  every 
kindness  done  to  my  father  or  mother  I  am  debtor. 
I  would  take  a  long  journey  on  foot  to  express  grati- 
tude to  anyone  who  ever  did  a  favor  to  my  mother. 
A  Godspeed  to  her  means  more  than  any  bounty  to 

[239] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

me.  We  bring  the  direct  charge  against  you  all  of 
being  debtors.  When  comfort  had  been  given  to  a 
soldier  boy  in  the  hospital,  or  in  the  field  by  a  nurse, 
or  a  comrade  in  arms,  the  members  of  the  family  at 
home  cannot  find  words  to  express  their  gratitude. 
They  feel  that  the  kindness  was  to  them.  No,  it 
was  not. 

Oh  certainly  it  was. 

It  is  felt  to  have  been  so  in  a  double  measure.  Ye  have 
have  done  it  unto  me.  When  John  Newton's  mother 
was  wearing  her  crown,  he  made  a  visit,  at  his  father 's 
desire,  among  those  who  had  loved  her.  A  tender  feel- 
ing was  cherished  toward  all  her  friends  and  well- 
wishers.  If  there  is  anything  concerning  which  we 
have  clear  ideas  it  is  a  matter  of  debt.  There  are  some 
who  seem  to  have  thoughts  and  feelings  that  are 
blurred  at  this  point,  who  get  in  debt,  stay  in  debt, 
and  appear  perfectly  easy.  But  if  anybody  is  in 
debt  to  us,  we  have  a  pressure  of  conviction  as  to  what 
he  ought  to  do.  It  is  a  particular  obligation,  where  we 
have  received  some  conspicuously  good  turn,  from 
some  good  angel.  To  thus  receive  benefits  and  never 
render  them  makes  us  sponges  that  are  full  but  never 
pressed  out. 

Solomon  disliked  to  die  because  of  that  man, 
the  son  of  a  heathen  wife,  that  should  come  after 
him.  After  a  minister  has  labored  long  and  hard  in 
a  church  it  is  useless  for  him  to  try  to  conceal  his 
interest,  in  the  man  that  should  come  after  him, 
to  reap  in  part  from  the  seed  of  his  sowing.  The 

[240] 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DEBTS  AND  DEBTORS 

chosen  successor  appears  and  proceeds,  according  to 
custom,  to  give  his  religious  experience  and  his  rea- 
sons for  entering  the  ministry.  He  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  Congregational  Church  in  Chelsea. 
When  he  reached  the  Sophomore  year  in  Harvard 
he  entertained  religious  doubts.  When  a  boy  is 
shooting  up  in  stature  he  appears  overgrown  and 
ludicrously  awkward.  When  at  a  similar  stage 
mentally 

He  is  intellectually  top-heavy. 

No  one  ever  knows  as  much  as  he  thinks  he  knows. 
When  they  were  planning  a  few  years  ago,  to  shorten 
the  college  course  and  graduate,  thus,  students  at  the 
Sophomore  stage,  President  Wilson  said  that  he  did 
not  see  how  a  man  could  expect  to  graduate  a  Sopho- 
more who  ever  saw  a  Sophomore.  It  takes  more  than 
two  years  to  make  a  man  out  of  a  boy.  The  word 
Sophomore  is  derived  from  sophos,  and  moros,  half- 
wise,  half  fool,  with  the  last  the  larger  half.  Any 
question  that  vexes  the  protectionists  or  free  traders, 
the  single-taxers,  the  immigration  bureau,  the  old 
and  the  new  schools  of  theology,  he  can  settle  off- 
hand, without  hesitation;  also  the  matters  which 
baffled  Milton's  Conclave  of  the  Grand  Infernal  Peers 
when  they  "  could  find  no  end  in  wandering  mazes 
lost."  He  does  not  think  that  Solomon  was  such  a 
wise  man,  only  that  he  was  wise  for  those  times.  He 
has  a  very  positive  way  of  filing  his  decisions.  A 
callow  Sophomore,  in  the  know-it-all  stage,  who 
posed  like  a  little  god,  knowing  good  and  evil,  pro- 

[241] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

pounded  several  questions  to  Phillips  Brooks,  and 
having  a  conceited  attempt  to  be  an  agnostic,  ended 
the  interview  with  the  condescending  remark,  "I 
guess  I  won't  ask  you  any  more  questions,  as  I 
don't  want  to  unsettle  your  faith."  A  minister 
observed,  that  he  would  desire  no  better  fortune, 
than  to  buy  such  persons  at  their  real  value,  and 
sell  them  again  at  the  estimate  which  they  place  on 
themselves.  This  period  of  transition,  which  a  stu- 
dent necessarily  passes  through,  as  he  does  the 
stages  of  the  measles  and  the  mumps,  when  the 
powers  are  expanding  rapidly  and  the  habits  of 
independent  thought  have  begun  to  start  inquiring, 
is  not  unwelcome,  for  all  discovery  and  invention 
and  human  improvement  are  largely  due  to  it.  If 
a  young  man  has  a  good  constitution,  keeps  his  pores 
open,  and  does  not  take  cold,  he  will  be  all  the  better 
and  none  the  worse  for  it.  As  the  minister  said 
of  him,  he  will  make  a  noble  man  and  good  Christian 
if  I  can  only  get  him  up  fool's  hill. 

There  is  a  charm  about  his  frankness. 
He  openly  said  to  his  pastor  in  Chelsea  that  he  had 
shed  his  religious  beliefs  and  wished  to  be  dropped 
from  the  church.  The  minister  asked  him  about  Dr. 
Peabody,  and  they  fell  into  a  pleasant  talk  about  his 
well-known  absent-mindedness.  But  the  Sophomore 
gathered  himself  and  said  that  he  feared  he  had  not 
made  himself  understood.  He  had  abandoned  the  be- 
liefs of  the  church  and  was  there  to  request  that  his 
name  be  expunged  from  the  church  roll.  The  minister 

[242] 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DEBTS  AND  DEBTORS 

asked  him  about  his  mother,  who  he  said  was  very 
much  beloved  by  the  church  people.  The  young  man 
thought  that  somebody  must  be  stupid,  as  his  er- 
rand did  not  seem  to  be  stated  in  such  a  way  as  to 
be  understood.  I  came  to  say  that  I  do  not  now 
hold  my  former  views  of  God  and  the  heavenly  life. 
I  fear  I  did  not  make  it  plain,  that  I  did  not  want 
to  embarrass  the  church,  by  carrying  me  as  a  mem- 
ber. "Oh,  yes,"  said  the  minister,  "I  caught  your 
meaning.  When  you  are  at  home  remember  that 
we  are  doing  business  at  the  old  stand."  "Are  you 
not  going  to  drop  me?"  "Drop  you!  Far  from  it. 

Never,  Never,  Never!'9 

"What  are  you  going  to  do?"  The  church  is  going  to 
mother  you  and  love  you  and  pray  for  you."  "And 
now, ' '  said  my  successor,  * '  I  am  entering  the  ministry 
to  try  to  do  for  some  other  young  man  what  my  min- 
ister did  for  me  when  I  was  in  the  Sophomore  year  of 
Harvard  College. ' '  He  did  not  choose  the  easy  method. 
That  would  have  been  to  say,  All  who  are  in  favor  of 
dropping  this  young  man  from  our  rolls  will  please 
hold  up  their  hands,  and  the  deadly  sin  is  committed 
never  to  be  undone,  with  its  baneful  influence  and  its 
dire  effects.  Jesus  said,  Let  both  grow  together  till  the 
harvest.  The  net  cast  into  the  sea  gathered  the 
usual  variety.  With  what  an  elevated,  high-minded 
motive  the  one  time  Sophomore  entered  the  ministry. 
He  could  not  repay  his  minister  in  kind.  We  cannot 
lead  the  man  to  Christ  who  first  prayed  with  us 

[243] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

when  we  were  seeking  the  Saviour.  I  am  debtor 
to  benefactors  and  guides  and  authors  that  I  can 
never  hope  to  thank  save  in  heaven. 

In  an  evil  hour,  when  Napoleon,  whose  name 
fills  more  pages  in  the  world's  solemn  history  than 
that  of  any  other  mortal,  decided  upon  what  he 
called  his  Continental  system,  he  found  the  power 
divided  between  himself  and  Alexander  of  Russia. 
The  man  of  destiny  must  see  his  system  enforced. 
He  has  staked  his  all  upon  it.  When  he  had  cap- 
tured Vienna, 

Austria  had  begged  for  peace. 

When  he  had  ridden  as  conqueror  into  Berlin,  Prussia 
had  yielded.  The  genius  that  had  so  often  startled  the 
world  was  of  no  advantage  in  procuring  rations  for 
the  army,  nor  shelter  from  the  northern  blasts. 
Words  utterly  fail  to  describe  the  sufferings  of  the 
French  during  that  terrible  march  homeward.  Over 
58,000  of  the  60,000  cavalry  horses  died  from  wounds, 
exposure,  over-work,  and  starvation.  In  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Berezina  River  28,000  men  were  lost. 
When  he  reached  the  opposite  side  of  the  river, 
Prince  Emile  discovered  that  only  ten  men  remained 
of  the  thousand  which  he  commanded  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  campaign.  These  ten  soldiers,  how- 
ever, formed  themselves  round  their  loved  leader. 
The  cold  was  intense.  Snow  lay  heavily  upon  the 
ground.  Sleep  they  dare  not,  for  to  lie  down  and 
rest  was  inevitably  to  have  no  waking.  "My  chil- 

[244] 


SOMETHING  ABOUT  DEBTS  AND  DEBTORS 

dren,"  he  said,  "I  must  sleep.  If  God  wills  that  I 
fight  again  He  will  wake  me  in  the  morning. ' ' 

He  lay  down  and  slept. 

When  he  awoke  and  was  able  to  observe  his  surround- 
ings he  saw  that  he  lay  in  a  thatched  shed.  His  body 
did  not  repose  on  the  naked  earth.  A  pile  of  clothes 
was  under  him,  thus  protecting  him  from  contact  with 
the  snow  and  shielding  him  from  the  piercing  cold. 
The  prince  examined  them  and  found  them  to  be  the 
red  coats  of  his  soldiers.  He  saw  that  his  brave  men, 
unwilling  to  desert  him  as  he  lay  in  the  snow,  had  car- 
ried him  to  this  shelter  and  covered  him  with  their 
coats.  He  went  out  to  seek  them.  He  had  not  far 
to  go.  Outside  the  shed  lay  his  ten  companions, 
half  naked,  and  frozen  in  death.  They  had  given 
their  lives  for  him  and  died  that  he  might  live. 
"  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends. "  ' t  God  commendeth 
his  love  toward  us,  in  that  while  we  were  yet  sin- 
ners Christ  died  for  us." 

"Oh  to  Grace,  how  great  a  debtor 
Daily  I'm  constrained  to  be." 


[245] 


CHAPTER  XXVI 
GATES  THAT  OPEN  TOWARD  THE  BAST. 

And  the  glory  of  the  Lord  came  into  the  house  by  the 
way  of  the  gate  whose  prospect  is  toward  the  East.  Ezekiel 
43:4 

When  that  bright  particular  star,  distinguished 
from  the  whole  host  of  Heaven,  "His  Star,"  as  the 
Scriptures  styles  it,  that  had  no  need  of  the  darkness 
to  make  it  visible,  shone  over  the  wise  men,  in  their 
own  country,  it  appeared  in  the  East.  That  is  the 
source  of  our  religious  ideas  and  lessons,  one  of  which 
is  that  people  as  we  travel  eastward  have  much  less 
timidity  about  expressing  their  religious  views  than 
Americans  have.  They  are  indeed,  on  the  other 
hand,  very  outspoken  about  it.  We  are  in  the  Tyro- 
lese  Alps.  This  is  the  market  place.  Many  of  the 
peasants  have  come  hither  to  sell  the  products  of 
their  market  gardens.  We  are  in  the  adjacent  res- 
taurant. The  town  clock  in  a  neighboring  church 
strikes  twelve,  and  a  silence  pervading  the  place, 
these  stout  men  stand,  about  their  tables  and  with 
bowed  heads  ask  a  blessing,  using  words  in  which 
all  can  join,  "Our  Father  who  art  in  Heaven,  Hal- 
lowed be  Thy  name,  Give  us  this  day  our  daily 
bread."  That  is  not  an  American  scene.  It  is  re- 

[246] 


GATES   THAT   OPEN  TOWARD   THE   EAST 

vealed  in  the  East  which  is  the  cradle  of  civilization. 
A  Mohammedan,  five  times  a  day  will  fall  upon  his 
knees  just  where  he  is,  not  caring  about  his  surround- 
ings, at  the  appointed  hours  of  prayer.  He  will  stop 
his  business  transactions,  whether  in  the  store  or 
field,  or  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd,  and  drop  upon  his 
knees  and  pray.  A  gray-bearded  Turk,  on  a  rug  in 
the  rear  of  his  store,  engaged  in  his  devotions,  will 
take  no  heed  of  Americans  who  desire  to  buy  his 
goods,  but  will  compel  them  to  wait  until  he  is 
through.  The  chance  of  losing  a  sale  by  not  attend- 
ing to  a  customer  does  not  deter  him  from  prayer. 

That  is  an  eastern  scene. 

No  one  would  suspect  that  we  were  presenting  an 
American  picture. 

One  of  the  favorite  paintings  which  has  estab- 
lished itself  in  popular  favor  is  Millet's  "Angelus." 
At  the  time  it  was  sold  it  brought  $110,600.00  the 
highest  price  ever  paid  at  auction  for  a  modern 
painting.  It  is  beyond  doubt  the  most  marvelous 
production  of  our  times.  A  young  laborer  stands  in 
a  field,  by  his  side  his  wife,  a  simple  peasant  girl, 
with  blue  apron  and  short  skirt  and  white  cap.  He 
holds  his  hat  in  hand  and  bows  reverently.  She 
clasps  her  hands,  and  is  the  expression  of  devotion. 
Man,  woman  and  God  are  the  participants  in  this 
solemn  scene.  They  are  the  only  factors  in  the  pic- 
ture. It  is  now  early  evening,  when  the  glow  of 
sunset  is  coloring  the  clouds  and  falling  upon  the 
earth.  There  is  a  fork  in  the  ground;  at  its  side  a 

[247] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

wheelbarrow,  a  basket  of  potatoes,  and  everything 
which  tells  the  story  of  a  day's  work.  The  artist 
has  made  the  light  to  fall  upon  his  bowed  head  and 
her  folded  hands.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  scene  ? 
Why  does  it  seem  as  if  the  very  windows  of  Heaven 
are  open  above  it,  and  that  the  interest,  of  the 
angels,  is  centered  upon  that  ordinary  field?  Far 
away  in  the  dim  outline,  a  church-spire  rises  against 
the  sky.  You  can  almost  hear  the  sound  of  the  bell. 
It  is  the  evening  "Angelus."  At  its  sound  the 
laborer  pauses  to  worship.  The  picture  can  never 
lose  its  vitality.  Such  a  revelation  comes  out  of  the 
East. 

We  have  no  such  American  sight. 
If  reverence  exists,  we  do  not  mean  to  show  it. 

This  general  agreement  to  conceal  religion  is 
our  great  American  Vice.  It  is  a  lamentable  failing, 
and  it  is  distinctly  American.  If  it  is  not  clearly 
defined,  contrast  an  American's  bad  habit,  in  the 
matter  of  his  religion,  with  his  outspokenness  touch- 
ing his  country.  He  wishes  those  people  over  the 
ocean  would  come  to  this  country  and  learn  how  to 
check  baggage.  It  is  common  abroad  to  see  women 
pass  from  the  platform  into  the  luggage  van  to 
claim  their  baggage.  These  personal  belongings 
become  again  mixed  in  transit  and  the  wrong  trunks 
are  sent  to  the  hotel.  Then  the  American  vernacular 
floods  again.  This  overflow  of  language  comes  not 
from  pride  only  in  American  ways,  but  also  from 
distress  of  mind.  The  traveler  feels  that  as  there 

[248] 


GATES   THAT   OPEN  TOWARD   THE   EAST 

is  a  better  method  of  identifying  baggage  the  way  it 
is  done  in  the  United  States  ought  to  be  preached 
from  the  housetops,  and  it  is  thus  set  forth  with 
much  fervor. 

Religious  Shame facedness. 

But  in  matters  of  faith,  in  the  item  of  loyalty  to  "a 
better  country  that  is  a  heavenly"  there  is  the  con- 
stant use  of  the  soft  pedal.  If  anyone  is  interested  in  re- 
ligion and  wonders  about  my  religious  sympathies,  I 
keep  him  guessing.  The  agricultural  implements  used 
abroad  are  particularly  provocative  of  boasts  touch- 
ing this  country,  and  of  recommendations  to  visit 
it,  and  of  the  unsought  advice  to  do  things  as  they 
are  done  in  America.  But  the  man's  religion  is 
carefully  concealed  in  his  waistcoat  pocket.  You  can 
no  more  tell  whether  he  has  any  than  you  can  judge 
of  the  coins  he  carries,  without  seeing  them.  Find 
out  as  best  you  can  if  he  is  a  Christian.  He  will 
contribute  nothing  toward  the  discovery.  One  thing 
he  is  proud  of  and  he  does  not  care  who  knows  it 
and  that  is  that  he  comes  from  the  United  States. 
He  is  as  timid  as  a  gazelle  in  religious  matters  but 
absolutely  unabashed  in  bearing  noble  witness  that 
America  is  the  greatest  country  on  earth.  He  will  go 
into  open  campaign  and  work  and  fight  for  his  politics 
while  in  religion  he  does  not  care  to  have  it  known 
which  side  he  is  on  and  rather  inclines  toward  ret- 
icence. Friend,  how  earnest  thou  in  hither  not  hav- 
ing a  wedding  garment  ?  If  you  attend  the  marriage, 
openly 

[249] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

Identify  yourself  with  the  party, 
and  do  not  be  ashamed  to  be  marked  as  one  of  the 
guests.  If  you  go  to  the  wedding  put  on  the  raiment. 
If  you  have  accepted  the  invitation  wear  the  livery. 
Guests  make  a  distinctive  united  group,  and  there  is 
without  another  company.  Show  which  side  you  are 
on.  Put  on  the  uniform.  It  is  an  effective  expression 
of  loyalty. 

God's  footprints  show  that  he  has  always  moved 
from  the  East  westward.  It  is  from  the  East  that  we 
learn  the  reason  that  a  band  of  earnest  Christian 
workers  represent  themselves,  not  as  belonging  to  the 
church,  but  to  an  army.  Such  a  designation  would 
never  have  arisen  in  the  West.  It  comes  from  an 
empire  where  the  martial  spirit  prevails,  and  where 
an  army  office  is  coveted.  St.  Paul's  church  is  the 
most  conspicuous  object  in  London.  It  exalts  the 
tablets  and  statues  and  monuments  of  those  who  have 
been  brave  in  war.  This  affects  the  martial  spirit. 
Titles,  ranks,  and  military  methods  appeal  to  men  and 
boys,  and  with  women,  these  influences  are  irresistible. 
Some  one  wondered  how  such  a  being  as  Satan  ever 
tempted  Eve.  He  may  have  had  on  an  uniform,  was 
the  reply.  An  officer  abroad  is  not  permitted  to 
travel  except  in  a  first-class  car.  He  has  always  been 
a  social  sensation.  The  popularity  of  the  army  with 
women  arose  in  the  days  of  chivalry.  Scottish  mothers 
still  hold  before  their  bairns  chivalrous  ideals  and 
urge  them  to  be  heroes  and  not  cowards  as  they  go 
out  to  fight  life's  battles.  Remarkable  shrewdness 

[250] 


GATES   THAT   OPEN  TOWARD   THE   EAST 

was  displayed  by  Booth  when  he  planned  an  army 
organization.  He  knew  well  the  influence  of  the 
martial  spirit,  and  skilfully  utilized  this  master  pas- 
sion in  his  organization.  There  is  an  office,  and  a 
military  title  in  sight  for  anybody.  All  this  would 
gain  no  headway  in  a  western  town,  where  people, 
living  on  a  level,  and  being  good  neighbors,  know  each 
other  well.  But  where  you  find,  on  the  one  hand, 
royalty  and  nobility,  earls  and  lords  and  dukes,  you 
will  find  on  the  other  a  multitude,  as  in  London,  to 
whom  no  voice  has  spoken,  and  to  whom  no  hand  has 
been  held  out.  Three  hundred  Londons  would  make 
the  world.  Its  streets,  placed  end  to  end  would  stretch 
across  our  land  from  ocean  to  ocean.  It  has  more 
churches  and  chapels  than  the  whole  of  Italy.  The 
people  who  die  each  year  within  the  city  limits  of 
London  would  fill  a  cemetery  of  twenty-three  acres. 
Now  General  Booth,  Greatheart,  a  born  leader,  an 
organizing  genius  whom  Bunyan  and  Carlyle  would 
style  Mr.  Able  Man,  knew  in  London  what  way  to 
proceed.  He  put  his  Christian  workers  in  uniform. 

It  is  a  defense. 

It  also  saves  an  introduction.  But  here 's  the  evidence 
of  insight.  Every  adherent  must  make  an  open  com- 
mitment. He  displays  upon  each  person  the  words, 
Salvation  Army.  Thus  he  is  known  and  is  literally,  as 
the  Scripture  says,  "read"  of  all  men.  And  by  reason 
of  what  the  people  have  read  on  his  cap,  he  is  forced  to 
stand  in  a  new  relation.  When  he  returns  to  his  old 
environment,  he  is  not  of  it.  Being  now  advertised  as 

[251] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

a  worker,  that  is  his  field.  Temptors  are  notified 
that  he  is  against  them,  and  so  is  no  longer  open  to 
their  wiles.  He  is  a  ll  marked  man ' '  in  the  community, 
and  what  is  expected  of  him  helps  him.  He  feels  a  new 
loyalty,  advertises  a  new  standard  of  life,  and  the  eyes 
that  follow  him  everywhere  he  goes,  guard  him  and 
hold  him  up  to  his  profession.  The  hiding  of  his  power 
is  in  the  fact  that  he  is  a  badged  believer.  Politicians 
hurrying  to  some  nominating  convention  garland 
their  cars  for  a  favorite  party,  and  a  favorite  candi- 
date. The  old  prophecy  recites  that  holiness  to  the 
Lord  is  to  be  written  on  the  bells  of  the  horses. 

Carved  in  stone  over  a  doorway  in  a  building  of 
Chicago  University  are  the  words  ex  oriente, 

Out  of  the  East. 

Out  of  the  quarter  where  the  sun  rises  comes  the 
religious  light,  taking  the  form  of  a  commandment, 
Thou  shalt  not  have  the  iniquity  of  the  Continental 
Sunday.  During  the  erection  of  the  American 
Chapel  in  Paris  the  question  arose  touching  Sunday 
labor.  The  workmen  were  unwilling  to  lose  the  two 
hundred  francs  a  Sunday  while  the  building  was 
being  reared.  They  supposed  they  were  putting  an 
additional  day's  pay  into  their  envelopes  each  week. 
They  gathered  around  Dr.  Kirk  and  stated  as  their 
grievance  that  they  could  not  support  their  families 
on  six  day's  pay.  But  he  told  them  that  there  was  to 
be  no  reduction  but  rather  a  day  saved  for  rest  and 
worship.  This  affects  favorably  every  part  of  a 
man's  life.  He  showed  them  that  Sunday  was  the 

[252] 


GATES   THAT   OPEN  TOWARD   THE   EAST 

poor  man's  day,  that  only  slaves  are  compelled  to 
work  every  day  in  the  week,  that  the  religious  idea  was 
to  give  seven  days '  pay  for  six  days '  work.  A  more  wel- 
come announcement  could  hardly  have  been  brought 
them  by  an  angel  from  heaven. 

This  was  an  innovation. 

As  an  object  lesson  it  set  out  the  whole  Sunday 
question.  The  day  once  given  to  amusement  will  end 
in  labor.  When  a  contractor  wants  his  men  to  put 
the  work  along,  it  is  not  enough  for  them  to  say  that 
they  had  plans  for  some  sports.  There  is  no  moral 
earnestness  in  such  an  excuse.  Put  only  amusement 
against  labor  and  the  more  earnest  element  will  pre- 
vail. But  when  they  tell  him  that  their  consciences 
are  against  Sunday  labor,  that  God  expressly  forbids 
it  and  they  are  not  going  to  do  it,  as  it  makes  them 
slaves,  their  protest  is  effective.  We  are  invited  by  a 
resident  of  Geneva  to  stand  for  an  hour  on  Sunday 
morning  in  the  labor  market  and  see  the  troops  of  dull, 
tired,  sodden  looking  laborers,  in  their  ragged  blouses, 
unwashed  from  the  grime  and  sweat  of  one  week's 
work,  trudging  off  on  Sunday  morning  sluggishly  and 
wearily  "like  dumb  driven  cattle"  to  the  work  of  the 
first  day  of  another  week.  The  progress  that  was 
made  was  revealed  at  Nimes,  France,  where  1000  em- 
ployes marched  through  the  streets  carrying  banners 
with  this  device,  Buy  nothing  on  Sunday.  Most  of 
the  shops,  on  being  requested  to  close,  put  up  their 
shutters.  Servitude  seven  days  in  the  week  was 
farthest  from  the  thought  of  working  men  when,  on 

[253] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

that  day,  with  the  world  awheel,  they  turned  them- 
selves into  an  excited  mob  of  pleasure-seekers,  surging 
through  the  streets  with  baskets  and  bundles,  trying 
hard  to  rest  on  the  Sabbath  day.  Sports  were  in 
progress. 

Bands  were  employed. 

Toy  balloons  were  being  hawked  by  the  zealous  ped- 
dlers. Holiday  gaiety,  light  amusement,  riding,  sail- 
ing, visiting,  gaming  prevailed,  even  the  apparel  of 
the  people  appeared  loud.  The  demonstration  seemed 
forced  and  noisy,  and  the  participants  acted,  as  if 
after  working  so  hard  to  be  happy,  they  were  afraid 
they  were  not  going  to  be  paid. 

There  was  a  lesson  from  the  East  which,  on  its 
delivery  was  so  witnessed  by  the  spirit  that  the 
recording  angel  will  never  allow  its  impression  to  be 
effaced.  The  place  was  Exeter  Hall  on  tne  Strand  in 
London.  The  younger  Booth  had  just  visited  the 
dock  to  say  farewell  to  his  father,  who  was  sailing  for 
Africa.  The  faithful  son  recited  his  plans  for  Chris- 
tian work  to  gain  his  father's  counsel  and  approval. 
The  time  was  so  short,  and  the  conference  so  im- 
portant, that  it  was  continued  between  the  son  on  the 
wharf  and  the  father  standing  at  the  gunwale  of  the 
vessel.  The  son  recited  more  in  detail  his  scheme  and 
begged  an  approving  word,  when  the  old  general,  lift- 
ing both  hands  in  benediction,  said  solemnly  to  his 
son,  "All  right.  Go  ahead. "  On  returning  to 
Exeter  Hall  the  son  said  to  a  great  expectant,  melted 
multitude  "Are  we  all  right?"  and  recited  the  inci- 

[254] 


GATES   THAT   OPEN  TOWARD   THE   EAST 

dent.  Let  us  search  our  hearts.  We  are  not  to  go 
ahead  unless  we  are  all  right.  Are  we  forgiven?  Is 
it  all  right  between  us  and  our  Maker?  Are  we  at 
peace  with  Him?  Are  our  accounts  squared?  Are 
we  simply  all  right? 

"After  this  the  judgment." 

Is  there  anyone  who  can  rise  up  in  the  judgment 
against  us.  We  must  not  go  ahead  unless  we  feel  that 
it  is  all  right  with  us.  There  is  therefore  now  no  con- 
demnation to  them  which  are  in  Christ  Jesus.  How  do 
we  feel  about  it  ?  Are  we  all  right  ?  He  that  believeth 
on  the  Son  hath  the  witness  in  himself.  Do  you  know 
you  have  it?  We  shall  be  changed.  We  shall  be  all 
spirit.  We  shall  meet  God.  In  view  of  what  is 
before  us  we  are  not  fitted  to  go  ahead  unless  we  are 
all  right,  and  we  know  well  the  means  of  reconcilia- 
tion. And  are  we  all  right?  We  are  not  fitted  to 
enter  into  trial,  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow,  or  even 
into  difficult  work  unless  we  can  say  Emmanuel,  God 
with  Us.  A  person  who  is  not  all  right  is  weak,  un- 
settled, and  unfitted  to  go  forth.  But  now  he  bears 
witness  that  he  has  a  strong  faith,  that  he  distinctly 
feels  that  he  has  been  forgiven,  and  that  he  entertains 
a  lively  hope.  All  right.  Go  ahead. 


[255] 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

The  children  gather  wood,  and  the  fathers  kindle  the 
fire  and  the  women  knead  their  dough.  Jer.  7:18. 

There  they  fly,  the  children,  to  gather  the  fuel. 
They  are  the  feeders  of  the  flame.  The  eye  tries  to 
follow  them  as  they  scour  the  hillside  yonder  making 
up  their  fagots.  They  run  as  they  stoop.  If  anyone 
of  us  who  are  older  should  take  their  speed,  to  do 
their  allotted  task  he  would  feel  the  effects  of  his  ex- 
ertion on  the  next  day  and  the  next.  Children  may 
not  be  able  to  do  all  that  we  can  do,  but  they  can  do 
some  things  which  we  cannot  do.  With  what  cheer- 
fulness they  work,  and  with  what  glee,  and  with  how 
much  use  of  the  voice!  It  is  the  organ  of  the  soul. 
We  can  tell  the  moment  the  work  begins  by  the  sound 
of  their  shoutings.  "Look,  papa.  See,  mamma, 
see."  Their  parents  are  summoned  to  the  door  of 
the  tent  to  witness  how  smart  they  are.  They  do  not 
like  solitary  labor.  When  one  child  finds  enjoyable 
activity  it  is  easy  for  him  to  associate  with  him  a 
troop  of  others.  Children  readily  form  a  party  or  an 
excursion.  They  come  right  to  the  point.  Their 
hands  are  not  tied  by  conventionalities.  They  are 
naturally  missionaries.  For  effective  word-carriers, 

[256] 


"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

go  first  to  the  children  who  are  attending  school,  to 
whom  a  notice  being  given,  it  travels  like  a  contagion 
to  the  community's  outmost  rim.  There  are  some 
things  children  can  best  do.  A  lady  who  joined  the 
French  class  of  The  Woman's  Club  was  not  a  little 
disturbed  because  the  youngest  member  made  the 
most  progress.  Children  are  in  the  language-learning 
period.  Calling  at  the  home  of  a  French  family  and 
finding  difficulty  in  expression,  a  visitor  opens  his  eyes 
when  a  child  interposes  and  becomes  an  easy  in- 
terpreter of  the  meaning  of  both  parties  that  had  at- 
tempted to  confer.  Children  can  memorize  the 
easiest.  Recall  your  own  early  exploits  in  committing 
to  memory  long  portions  of  Scripture  and  poems  and 
declamations,  particularly  when  the  meaning  was  a 
trifle  obscure,  and  compare  what  you  did  then  with 
your  inability  to  do  the  same  task  now,  and  you  will 
find  that  there  are  some  things  that  children  can  best 
do.  An  old  sailor  said  that  he  never  knew  a  boy  to 
get  washed  overboard  at  sea.  If  a  heavy  man  catches 
hold  of  a  rope  he  cannot  sustain  his  own  weight  as  a 
boy  can. 

A  boy  is  light  and  miry 

and  tenacious  if  he  gets  hold.  Simply  because  he  is  a 
boy,  he  can  keep  hold.  He  has  less  to  sustain.  So  it  is 
with  the  boy  who  by  faith  lays  hold  on  Jesus.  He  has 
not  the  weight  of  so  many  habits  and  thoughts  to  drag 
him  down.  It  is  easier  for  a  boy  to  feel  sorry  for  a  sin, 
and  to  repent  and  to  change  his  ways.  There  are 
some  things  that  children  can  best  do.  The  one  sure 

[257] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

thing  that  you  notice  about  a  child  is  a  want.  His 
nature  turns  him  to  a  supply.  He  naturally  inclines 
to  pray.  Even  the  form,  as  in  the  familiar  case  of 
John  Quincy  Adams,  continues  with  him  as  a  fixed 
habit  all  along  down  the  years  until  he  is  old  and 
gray-headed. 

While  a  ship  was  loading  with  sugar  at  New 
Orleans,  her  captain  was  brought  frequently  in  con- 
tact with  a  clerk  whose  gentlemanly  bearing  and 
ability  awakened  in  the  captain  a  purpose  to  speak  to 
him,  as  they  parted,  about  the  importance  of  conse- 
crating his  life  to  his  Redeemer.  On  going  to  sea  the 
captain  never  omitted  for  a  single  day  to  pray  for  the 
sugar  merchant's  clerk.  Thus  Christopher  R.  Robert, 
who  pondered  in  his  heart  what  the  captain  said  to 
him,  became  a  Christian,  and  conscientiously  vowed 
that,  if  the  Lord  prospered  him,  he  would  do  only  good 
with  a  tenth  of  all  he  gained.  Standing  at  the  water's 
edge,  near  Constantinople,  he  noted  the  aroma  of  the 
freshly-baked  bread  that,  by  contract,  was  being 
landed  at  the  rate  of  12,000  pounds  a  day  for  the  Eng- 
lish army  in  the  Crimean  War.  ''Where  do  you  get 
the  redolent  loaves  ? "  ' '  From  a  missionary  over  here 
by  the  name  of  Hamlin."  All  taken  up  with  the 
work  and  character  and  ideals  of  the  missionary,  Mr. 
Robert  inquired,  "What  is  your  greatest  need?" 
"Nothing  else  so  much  as  a  college  to  crown  these 
heights." 

"I  guess  we  can  compass  it." 
The  dream  of  a  life-time,  the  vision,  the  prayer  had 

[258] 


"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

their  fulfilment  in  Robert  College.  "And  behold  ther& 
came  an  old  man  from  his  work  out  of  the  field  at 
even/'  It  was  Cyrus  Hamlin,  statesman,  diplomat, 
suited  to  be  president  of  a  theological  seminary  or  a 
professor  in  a  college.  He  was  informed  that  a  serious 
malady  would  require,  surgically,  a  major  operation, 
and  that  his  chances  at  his  age  of  surviving  it  were  cer- 
tainly no  more  than  even.  Said  he  to  the  surgeon,  * '  If 
you  were  in  my  place,  would  you  face  the  operation  ? ' ' 
"I  would/'  Mrs.  Walter  Baker  invited  him  to  her 
house,  as  she  kept  Jersey  cows,  to  be  nourished  and 
strengthened  for  what  awaited  him.  As  he,  in  the 
elevator  at  the  hospital,  reached  the  landing,  crowned 
with  dignities  and  honors,  a  strong  attendant  took 
him  in  his  arms  and  bore  him  to  the  operating  table 
to  save  the  draft  upon  his  nervous  forces  by  his  un- 
aided approach.  As  the  anaesthetic  was  about  to  be 
administered,  he  said  quietly,  "Wait  a  moment  while 
I  pray, 

Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep. 
If  I  should  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  take. 
And  this  I  ask  for  Jesus*  sake, 
Amen." 

"I  am  ready. "  When  he  was  looking  death  in 
the  face,  when  in  the  stress  of  life,  in  the  exigency  of 
all  human  experience,  he  prayed  the  prayer  his  mother 
taught  him.  After  the  lapse  of  all  those  momentous 
years,  having  established  his  fame  in  both  hemispheres, 

[259] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

when  in  solicitude  and  anguish  of  heart,  his  soul's  cry 
was  in  the  words  he  learned  at  the  sacred  altar  of  his 
mother's  knee. 

Church  of  the  living  God,  what  do  you  feel  should 
be  the  support  of  people  in  trial,  in  the  emergency  of 
life,  or  in  the  struggle  of  death  ?  Teach  it  to  the  chil- 
dren and  then  they  cannot  forget  it.  The  effort  to  cast 
it  out  will  only  confirm  their  recollection.  Mother  the 
children,  and  their  living  sentiment  by  the  blessing 
of  God  becomes  their  dying  sentiment.  In  the  stress 
of  life  to  whom  shall  they  go  but  to  The  Mighty  To 
Save. 

The  fathers  kindle  the  fire. 

The  men  are  on  the  dividing  line  here  between  man- 
kind and  the  brute  creation.  A  man  can  kindle  the 
fire.  A  brute  cannot.  It  would  not  do  to  trust  a  dumb 
animal  with  the  responsibility  that  inheres  in  igniting 
a  flame.  Before  the  days  of  lucifer  matches,  it  required 
strength  that  had  been  stored,  and  experience  and 
skill,  having  tinder  to  take  the  flint  and  a  hard  metal, 
or  to  so  revolve  hard  wood  in  a  prepared  orifice,  or  to 
vigorously,  even  violently,  rub  two  pieces  of  partly  de- 
composed wood  together  in  such  a  way  as  to  get  a 
spark  and  kindle  the  fire.  The  vigor  of  our  text  comes 
from  assembling  one  by  one,  the  appropriate  forces 
that  are  to  be  used  in  service.  In  the  battle  of  Chancel- 
lorsville,  the  soldiers,  were  not  defeated.  The  generals 
were  outclassed,  and  egregiously  and  ridiculously 
whipped.  Our  great  defeat  and  humiliation  arose 
from  the  fact  that  there  were  37,000  young,  brave  men 

[260] 


"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

that  our  generals  did  not  seem  to  be  able  to  introduce 
into  the  fight  and  make  them  available.*  This  is  a  les- 
son for  pastors  and  Christian  workers,  and  leaders. 
Here  were  troops  eager  for  the  fray,  but  they  lacked 
direction.  Vicsburg  stands  as  a  great  achievement  of 
a  general.  When  Grant  dropped  down  the  Mississippi 
River,  cut  himself  loose  from  the  base  of  supplies,  and 
informed  the  authorities  at  Washington  that  he 
would  not  be  heard  from  for  several  days,  it  was  the 
brilliant  stroke  of  a  master  mind.  Vicksburg  was 

The  greatest  surrender  of  generals, 
of  whom  there  were  fifteen,  and  of  armament  and  men 
that  had  ever  been  made  at  one  time  since  time  began. 
This  was  an  achievement  of  General  Grant,  but  Get- 
tysburg, following  closely  on,  was  conspicuously  not 
only  a  soldier's  battle  but  it  expressed  in  a  still  broader 
sense  the  spirit  of  the  people,  which  here  became  mani- 
fest in  this  unprecedented  conflict.  The  American 
soldier  was  reinforced  by  a  mighty  sentiment  at  home. 
As  he  advanced  into  battle,  he  felt  the  mighty,  loyal 
North  behind  him.  The  heart  at  home,  and  the  heart 
at  the  front  beat  in  unison  This  is  the  most  pointed 
lesson  that  can  be  learned  by  the  church  from  our  na- 
tional history,  of  the  crying  need  of  men  not  unwilling 
to  be  placed  and  used.  Failure  comes  from  inability 
to  bring  the  demand  and  the  supply  together.  The 


*\Vhen  this  address  was  given  at  Burlington,  Vt.,  General  O. 
O.  Howard,  who  had  the  experience,  of  visiting  his  own  grave,  where 
his  arm  was  buried,  was  present  and  talked  at  length  with  the 
author,  about  the  service  and  made  no  exception  in  his  friendly  re- 
marks to  the  point  here  made.  He  said  himself,  having  had  a 
command  there,  '  'We  were  whipped  out  of  our  boots, ' '  and  used  that 
expression. 

[261] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

sore  defeat  at  a  crucial  period  came  solely  from  the 
commander's  impotence  in  not  placing  them  on  any 
part  of  the  firing  line.  On  the  approach  to  Gettysburg 
the  soldiers  in  the  ranks  were  determined  that  there 
should  be  no  repetition  of  the  recent  errors.  The 
lamentable  disasters  at  Fredericksburg  and  Chancel- 
lorsville  had  depressing  effect  upon  the  country  at 
large.  Our  national  currency,  which  is  so  quick  to 
detect  the  feelings  of  the  popular  heart,  ran  right 
down  to  its  minimum  in  value.  Volunteering  began 
to  flag.  Desertions  were  frequent.  The  rebels  having 
been  so  successful,  were  enthusiastic  and  presuming. 
It  was  the  darkest  hour  in  the  history  of  the  Rebellion. 
Loyal  hearts  everywhere  were  depressed.  General  Lee, 
having  been  reinforced  by  General  Longstreet,  was 
promising  his  followers  as  a  reward,  for  booty,  the 
capture  of  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  or  Washington. 

The  condition  of  things  was  desperate.  Our  na- 
tional leaders  were  thoroughly  alarmed.  No  one, 
however,  better  than  the  common  soldier  in  the  ranks 
apprehended  the  imminent  peril. 

Determination  was  rising  high. 

Patriotism  became  a  passion.  One  lofty  purpose  pos- 
sessed the  soul.  Such  resolve  had  come  to  actuate  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  men,  and  to  such  a  degree  were  all 
their  loyal  hearts  rallied  and  centered,  that  when  the 
first  army  corps,  which  had  been  wearily  plodding  its 
way  toward  Gettysburg,  came  into  proximity  to  the 
engagement,  enthusiasm  spread  like  an  infection,  and 
the  men  with  a  cheer  went  up  into  the  line  of  battle  on 

[262] 


"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

a  run.  More  men  were  left  dead  upon  the  field  than  the 
Germans  lost  in  the  whole  Franco-Prussian  War.  As 
General  Lee  began  his  retreat  he  exclaimed,  "This  is 
the  beginning  of  the  end. ' '  Gettysburg,  the  pivot  on 
which  our  national  destinies  turned,  was  a  soldiers' 
battle.  The  men  in  the  rank  and  file  did  not  know  very 
well  who  was  in  command  as  the  change  had  occurred 
within  three  days.  This  greatest  struggle  was  fought 
and  won  by  our  troops  in  an  overwhelming  conscious- 
ness of  personal  responsibility.  The  crisis  was  believed 
by  each  man  to  rest  upon  the  masses  in  the  field.  It 
stands  out,  upon  the  page  of  living  history,  as  the  sym- 
bol of  the  issues  of  life  in  our  land.  In  political,  in 
theological,  in  missionary,  and  aggressive  spheres  of 
thought  and  action,  final  decision  must  rest  upon  the 
intelligence,  the  devotion,  and  the  patriotism  of  our 
men.  At  Chancellorsville,  the  Generals  could  not  do 
their  work,  at  Gettysburg  the  soldiers  were  successful. 
In  the  Art  Building,  in  the  Exposition  at  Philadel- 
phia, among  the  paintings  before  which  knots  of  peo- 
ple were  constantly  hanging,  there  was  represented  a 
central  figure  repulsing  the  wild  charge  of  Pickett's 
division.  It  was  a  common  soldier  surrounded  by  his 
associates.  As  a  mark  of  the  signs  of  the  times,  make 
a  study  of  the  memorials  of  valor  as  they  stand  today 
in  monumental  stone  and  bronze,  and  you  will  find 
that  the  figure  which  stands  forth  to  exemplify  mod- 
ern heroism  and  achievement  is  not  an  officer  of  the 
staff  but  a  common  soldier  from  the  ranks.  Time  was 
when  the  benefits  of  learning  were  withheld  from  all, 

[263] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

save  a  chosen  few.  Selected  individuals  were  edu- 
cated, but  the  common  people  early  dropped  out  of 
school.  The  plan  then  was  the  education  of  the 
"classes."  Now  the  problem  is  the  education  of  the 
masses.  It  is  said  that  Michael  Angelo  took  his  copies, 
from  the  persons  he  met  in  every  day  life  and  wrought 
them  out  in  the  walls  of  the  Vatican.  So  the  expres- 
sion, which  a  church  at  last  is  made  to  wear  is  taken 
from  the  actual  life  of  the  people. 

And  the  women  knead  their  dough. 
There  are  some  things  that  women  can  best  do.  The 
text  names  but  one  particular  which  is  connected  with 
the  feeding  of  the  race.  On  the  first  leaf  of  the  Bible 
the  broad  ground  is  taken  that  woman 's  perceptions  of 
evil  are  more  acute  than  those  of  men.  She  therefore 
understands  the  moral  and  religious  bearings,  for 
example,  of  the  temperance  question  better  than  man. 
This  did  not  happen.  It  was  God's  idea  from  the  first. 
Her  endowment  accounts  for  the  fact.  A  great  work- 
ing, vital,  eternal  truth  is  lost  entirely  to  the  sight  of 
those  who  suppose  that  woman 's  call  to  prominence  in 
reformatory  matters  issues,  belated,  from  the  new 
growth  of  sentiment.* 

Her  call  was  at  the  beginning. 

The  conditions  which  enable  her  unerringly  to  re- 
spond are  in  her  very  nature  itself.  And  the  Lord 


*This  sermon  was  preached  in  Montreal  before  young  people, 
and  the  points  under  this  third  head  were  deemed  by  them  so 
effective  and  so  clearly  adapted  to  do  a  larger  good  that  a  request 
was  sent  to  the  author  for  the  privilege  of  printing  that  portion 
of  the  sermon  as  a  temperance  campaign  tract  for  general  dis- 
tribution. This  came  to  be  done  in  several  places  in  varied  editions. 

[264] 


"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

God  said:  "I  will  put  enmity  between  thee,  viz.,  the 
serpent,  the  tempter,  the  beguiler,  and  the  woman. 
That  is,  she  is  Heaven-appointed  to  stand  at  the  angle 
where  the  beguiler  touches  human-kind.  At  the 
furthest  outpost  where  righteousness  antagonizes 
wickedness,  there  she  stands.  She  is  at  the  point 
of  oppugnancy  between  the  arch-representative  of 
moral  evil  and  our  race.  She  is  at  the  apex  of  the 
phalanx  where  humanity  militates  against  the  powers 
of  darkness. 

She  is  there  as  a  picket. 

By  the  apprehensiveness  of  woman's  being  she  is  con- 
stitutionally fitted  to  go  on  guard.  By  an  instinct 
which  does  not  mislead  and  which  man  does  not  pos- 
sess in  equal  sensitiveness  and  serviceableness  by  a 
superior  susceptibility  she  is  made  impressionable  to 
the  presence  or  the  advances  of  evil.  She  is  specifically 
endowed  with  a  sensibility  which  enables  her  to  detect 
more  quickly  and  unerringly  what  is  harmful  morally. 
This  is  done  by  pure  native  insight  by  the  unimpeded 
clearness  of  her  finely  organized  intuitive  powers. 
Woman  is  a  more  highly  organized  being  than  man. 
It  is  a  scientific  principle  that  the  continuance  of  the 
creative  process  is  marked  by  ascending  degrees  of 
life.  This  is  in  the  nature  of  an  intuition.  In  the 
measure,  in  which  it  is  possessed,  and  in  its  univers- 
ality, it  could  not  be  acquired.  By  Nature's  original 
thought  for  her,  she  has  a  set  of  perceptions,  that 
look,  by  the  implanted  law  of  their  own  being,  for  the 

[265] 


THE    WORST    BOYS    IN    TOWN 

discovery  of  any  lurking  evil  that  menaces  the  young 
of  the  race.  A  great  part  of  her  fear  when  exposed 
to  danger,  in  some  dark  street  alone,  is  that  she  may 
lose  what  it  is  the  moral  business  of  her  whole  life  to 
keep.  She  is  made  thus,  as  we  so  often  see,  naturally 
apprehensive.  She  does  not  analyze  nor  understand 
her  fears.  They  are  implanted. 

They  act  unconsciously  and  early. 
By  them  she  is  placed  on  guard.  Her  perceptions 
of  the  variation  between  rudeness  and  refinement 
are  more  acute  than  those  of  men.  Most  of  those 
conventionalities,  which  make  up  so  large  a  part 
of  polite  education,  are  of  her  invention,  and  in 
her  absence  fall  into  disuse.  In  a  pioneer  settlement, 
composed  only  of  men,  life  falls  suddenly  to  the  same 
level.  One  may  be  stronger  or  braver  or  richer  than 
another,  and  receive  deference  therefor,  but  distinc- 
tions based  on  differences  in  culture  are  unknown. 
The  moment  women  appear,  social  lines  are  drawn  and 
caste  begins.  The  very  existence  of  the  word  Out- 
cast implies  a  moral  caste  from  which  bad  people  are 
eliminated.  "What  women  these  Christians  have!" 
said  a  Pagan  orator  of  the  second  century,  with  a  true 
perception  of  the  Bible 's  primal  idea  of  the  dignity  of 
womanhood  and  the  holiness  of  motherhood  which 
raises  the  whole  tone  and  character  of  the  household. 
Woman  sees  with  a  vividness  that  man  does  not  have, 
how  the  sale  and  use  of  intoxicants  interfere  with  the 
best  interest  of  the  home.  She,  who  has  the  pitiful 

[266] 


"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

heart,  cries  out  when  the  saloon  claims  a  victim.  Every 
boy  now  grown,  remembers  that  his  mother  notified 
him  of  the  moral  turpitude  of  some  bad  associate  long 
before  he  discovered  the  quality  she  apprehended.  By 
her  sensitive  organization,  spiritually,  she  was  not 
only  first  to  speak  but  was  fitted  to  speak,  and  now  I 
go  further  and  say  she  was  appointed  to  speak.  Not  to 
speak  is  to  be  recreant  to  the  commission  given  her  at 
the  beginning.  And  the  great  practical  inference, 
from  this  statement,  of  an  undeniable  Bible  principle, 
is  that  when  woman  speaks  upon  reformatory  matters 
she  is  to  receive  the  attention  to  which  her  position 
and  appointment,  as  we  have  seen,  entitle  her.  She  is 
by  God's  decree  the  moral  priestess  of  the  race. 

Our  duller  senses  do  not  serve  us. 
So  when  she,  standing  on  the  moral  outpost,  declares 
plainly,  that  there  exists  a  moral  danger  in  a  specified 
custom  or  person,  she  speaks  representatively  and 
authoritatively.  That  is  God's  way  of  uttering  His 
voice  to  us.  As  a  man,  I  may  see  no  danger,  but  I  am 
not  organized  to  see  it,  as  she  is.  Woman's  proclama- 
tions on  temperance  and  other  reforms  are  divinely  of- 
ficial. When  women  move,  in  a  town  or  city,  in  the 
matter  of  a  temperance  reformation,  the  men  in  the 
community — the  newspapers  in  the  place — and  the 
community  itself,  ought  to  know  how  much  it  means, 
in  view  of  the  principle,  which  is  here  accentuated. 
Men  are  to  respond  to  their  summons,  give  them  aid 
and  comfort,  yield  their  resistance  lest  haply  they  be 
found  fighting  against  God.  From  this  discussion  ap- 

[267] 


THE   WORST   BOYS   IN   TOWN 

pears,  too,  the  reason  that  there  are  more  women  than 
men  in  the  church. 

Of  course,  there  are. 

There  ought  to  be.  There  always  will  be  until  the  mil- 
lennial light  shall  illumine  all  things.  It  is  obvious, 
when  but  10  per  cent  of  the  inmates  of  penitentiaries 
are  women,  and  90  per  cent  men.  The  man  who  spec- 
ulated with  stolen  money  would  have  been  safe  if  he 
had  confided  in  his  wife.  A  woman  instinctively 
shrinks  from  the  thought  of  evil  doing.  No  such 
sophistry  beguiles  the  wife,  as  believing  that  default- 
ing, is  simply  borrowing  money.  She  knows  it  is  a 
theft,  and  can't  be  made  to  see  it  in  any  other  light. 
In  the  moral  realm  she,  who  has  the  pitiful  heart,  will 
wield  an  increasing  influence  and  gain  an  ascendency, 
which  both  the  advocates  of  woman's  singing  base,  and 
the  female  adorers  of  Oscar  Wilde  have  imperilled.  In 
recognizing,  moreover,  woman's  true  place  in  the  joint 
work  for  temperance  and  thus  thinking  after  him  the 
great  thoughts  of  God,  we  are  to  know  that  this  cruel 
giant  of  intemperance  is  yet  to  be  slain  ingloriously 
like  Holofernes  by  Judith,  Abimelech  and  Phyrrhus 
by  the  hands  of  women. 

The  sphere  of  woman's  care  in  the  matter  of 
morals  is  now  greatly  extended,  as  the  employment  of 
women  and  children,  in  stores  and  shops  and  fac- 
tories was  not  until  this  century  introduced  and  es- 
tablished. The  weaving  of  woolen  and  cotton  goods 
in  earlier  days  was  generally  done  in  the  homes  of  the 
workers,  as  watchmaking  is  still  done  in  Switzerland. 

[268] 


"GET  A  SPECIALTY" 

But  as  isolated  labor,  can  no  longer  compete  with  col- 
lective organized  industry,  a  new  menace  to  home  in- 
fluence has  arisen  which  she,  quick  to  detect,  is  now 
going  about  to  counteract.  Into  the  realm  of  philan- 
thropy, also  she  has  projected  her  beneficent  influ- 
ence. " Woman,"  says  Lecky,  "possesses  a  natural 
instinct  and  genius  of  charity. "  "The  order  of 
deaconesses, ' '  he  continues  in  his  History  of  European 
Morals,  "may  be  traced  to  the  Apostolic  period/* 

They  were  employed  "in  visiting.'' 
The  various  benevolent  orders  in  which  women  are  al- 
lied for  Christian  activity,  particularly  in  our  branch 
of  the  church,  are  probably  outgrowths  of  this  primi- 
tive organization.  Looking  out  broadly  upon  the  field 
today,  we  find  that  defalcations  never  occur  among 
women.  That  they  never  betray  a  trust  is  the  wonder 
of  those,  who  are  versed  only  in  routine  of  the  com- 
mercial world  and  not  in  what  God  has  made  known 
in  his  word  and  in  the  moral  construction  of  woman 
herself.  Being  guided  by  her  unequalled  intuition, 
who  can  now  point  to  women  as  a  class,  who  are  to 
be  found  on  the  wrong  side  of  any  great  moral  ques- 
tion? Women,  in  view  of  these  considerations,  are 
freighted  with  large  responsibilities.  Nearly  all  the 
city  missionaries  of  Boston  are  ladies,  and  they  are 
appointed,  not  because  of  economy,  but  because  they 
do  the  best  general  work.  Some  one  asked  Mr.  Spur- 
geon,  "Who  is  the  most  efficient  man  in  your 
church?"  He  replied,  characteristically,  "Mrs. 
Bartlett."  Children,  Fathers,  Women  on  what  do 

[269] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

you  lavish  your  best?  Everybody  has  some  object, 
himself  or  another,  on  which  he  lavishes  his  choicest 
store.  We  know  where  the  alabaster  box  was 
broken.  It  was  ointment,  "very  precious,"  "very 
costly/*  that  was  poured  forth.  It  is  a  gift  of  the 
best  that  touches  the  heart.  Abraham  brought  Isaac 
to  the  altar,  his  best.  There  is  nothing  too  good  for 
the  Saviour,  nothing  too  good  for  friendship,  for  the 
church,  for  our  country,  or  college,  or  school,  and 
nothing  too  good  to  apply  to  young  men  and  women 
who  are  in  the  formative  stage  of  their  lives. 


[270] 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

TRAVELING  INCOG 

Thou  shalt  bind  this  line  of  scarlet  thread  in  the  win- 
dow. Joshua  2:18. 

There  are  the  children  of  Israel  coming  up  out  of 
bondage.  They  approach  Jericho.  Upon  what  is  the 
preservation  of  Rahab  and  of  her  house  made  to  de- 
pend? Not  upon  her  faith,  but  rather  upon  the  ex- 
pression of  her  faith.  The  scarlet  thread  must  be 
thrown  out  from  the  window  in  token  of  her  faith. 
When  we  speak  of  yielding  testimonies  to  our  fellow- 
men,  we  are  prone  to  think  first  of  the  good  that  will 
be  done  to  others.  Let  me  turn  that  thought  around. 
I  want  to  make  it  evident  that  the  primary  advantage 
is  to  the  one  who  thus  adds  by  confession,  the  seal  to 
his  faith.  It  is  not  a  living  faith  until  it  is  expressed. 
Here  is  an  egg;  by  sight  or  by  sound  you  ascertain 
that  there  is  life  in  the  egg.  It  must  be  expressed,  not 
only  on  account  of  those  whom  the  fledgling  may  greet 
with  its  song,  but  there  must  be  manifestation  for  the 
well-being  of  the  life  itself.  Here  is  a  tree ;  if  insects 
strip  the  leaves  away,  which  are  its  form  of  manifes- 
tation, it  will  some  time,  if  expression  is  persistently 
denied,  die  in  its  place.  Look  at  this  seed;  life 
is  in  it.  The  power  of  the  germ,  however,  may 

[271] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

be  lost  in  time  if  you  refuse  it  a  chance  of  expression. 

Plant  it. 

Let  it  manifest  itself,  and  the  earth  will  never  be 
without  that  form  of  life.  Neither  can  faith  main- 
tain its  vitality  except  it  is  given  an  outward  manifes- 
tation. " Faith  without  works  is  dead."  Religious 
life  without  expression  is  incomplete.  The  expression 
is  a  part  of  the  faith,  it  is  the  development  or  final 
stage  of  it.  The  Apostle  does  not  say,  "Thou  shalt  be 
saved  if  thou  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart."  That 
would  recognize  and  reward  a  partial  process.  He 
insists  rather  upon  a  completed  process,  as  the  terms, 
on  man 's  part,  of  salvation,  and  so  lays  down  these  in- 
separable conditions  of  confession  with  the  mouth  as 
well  as  belief  in  the  heart.  Hence  he  continues,  *  *  with 
the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation."  "Upon 
this  Rock"  —  upon  this  solid  foundation,  not  upon 
Peter's  faith,  for  an  undeveloped  faith  is  a  very  inse- 
cure thing,  but  upon  faith  as  it  was  that  moment  con- 
fessed —  "I  will  found  my  Church."  The  faith  of  a 
man  needs  to  be  pronounced  in  order  to  hold  the  man. 
It  is  upon  this  idea  that  we  proceed  in  laboring  to  se- 
cure temperance  and  other  pledges.  We  want  souls  to 
commit  themselves,  and  that  for  their  own  good.  We 
instinctively  distrust  mere  matters  of  sentiment  and 
kindly  disposition  until  they  have  been  manifested. 
The  very  expression  of  regard  for  President  Timothy 
Dwight  as  it  used  to  be  expressed  by  the  students  at 
Yale  College,  as 

They  stood  respectfully 

[272] 


TRAVELING  INCOG 

in  their  places,  after  prayers,  until  he  had  passed 
slowly  down  the  long  aisle,  not  only  was  a  token  of 
reverence  for  him,  it  deepened  the  regard  for  him  in 
the  hearts  of  the  students  themselves.  It  built  up  one 
of  the  traditions  of  the  university.  It  bound  the  hearts 
of  the  students  up  in  the  same  bundle  with  the  institu- 
tion itself.  The  expression  of  reverence  became  a  part 
of  the  collective  life  at  New  Haven.  What  they  did  for 
him  they  did  with  even  greater  effect  for  themselves. 
The  seven  long,  weary,  sanguinary  years  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War  were  fought  through  to  a  glorious 
triumph  upon  the  basis  of  a  declaration.  The  force 
that  carried  the  colonies  through  was  in  the  embodied 
idea.  The  expression  of  the  idea  gave  it  birth,  fired  it 
with  a  destiny  and  gave  it  unwonted  energy.  Yeu 
will  observe  that  it  is  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
Declaration  that  all  our  revolutionary  history  is 
reviewed.  Here  the  unformed  sentiment  or  the  form- 
ing sentiment  crystalized.  Henceforth,  we  deal  in 
history,  with  a  new  fact.  Men  must  be  given  a  place 
on  which  to  stand,  when  they  would  lift  the  world.  80 
is  it  in  religious  life.  Congregations  break  forth  with 
singing,  when  men  declare  their  faith.  I  suppose  that 
in  the  case  of  many  persons  there  are  a  great  many 
religious  sentiments  and  convictions  lying  loose  about 
the  mind.  A  movement  toward  expression  would 
bring  them  into  line.  As  bodily  strength  comes  from 
its  expenditure,  and  not  from  its  hoarding;  as  the 
mental  faculties  gain  through  their  using;  as  expres- 
sion of  thought  in  speech  or  writing  increases  one's 

[273] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

treasures;  as  the  memory,  the  affections,  the  imagina- 
tion, gain  in  power  by  giving  them  exercise   and  by 

Giving  them  play, 

so  in  our  religious  development  expression  is  attended 
by  an  increment  of  power.  But  a  man  does  not  make 
himself  strong  merely  for  the  sake  of  strength,  but 
that  his  increased  power  may  be  of  service ;  just  as  a 
man  should  not  make  himself  rich  for  the  mere  sake 
of  riches,  but  that  he  may  use  his  wealth  in  beneficence 
and  blessing.  Strength,  riches  and  capability  of  ex- 
pression involve  immense  responsibilities  to  others.  In 
a  spot,  not  remote,  two  boys  were  in  jeopardy  of  their 
lives  upon  the  water.  One  of  them  gaining  the  shore, 
ran  to  a  neighboring  eminence  to  give  the  alarm  and 
summoned  help.  There  he  was  seen  by  many,  engag- 
ing in  violent  gesticulations,  which,  not  being  under- 
stood, met  with  no  response.  He  longed  to  save  his 
companion,  but  alas,  it  was  his  misfortune,  he  was 
deaf  and  dumb.  Yonder  is  all  needful  help,  and  at 
the  foot  of  the  hill  a  human  being  is  perishing,  and  yet 
there  stands  in  the  midst  an  interested  person,  but 
tongue-tied  and  silent  as  the  grave. 
Dumb  as  mummies. 

Here,  in  an  acted  parable,  is  the  church.  Oh,  this 
dumbness!  Needy  humanity,  help  in  readiness,  and 
the  intercessor  dumb !  Oh !  the  affliction  of  it !  To  have 
children  born  dumb  has  always  been  accounted  a  mis- 
fortune by  parents.  So,  too,  is  it  in  the  case  of  those 
who  are  born  again.  Dumbness  among  the  children  of 
God  is  an  unmitigated  calamity.  Where  there  should 

[274] 


TRAVELING  INCOG 

be,  sounding  out  the  living  voice  of  testimony,  spir- 
itual life  becomes  so  still,  so  quiet,  that  the  church 
seems  to  be  a  vast  aquarium.  You  look  down  upon  liv- 
ing creatures  that  engage  in  various  movements,  but 
all  is  so  voiceless!  So-called  Christians  engage  in 
varied  activities,  but  the  profoundest  silence  reigns. 
Dumb  as  fishes!  There  is  motion,  but  no  utterances! 
Their  religion  is  bottled  up.  They  carry  dark  lanterns. 
They  have  a  light,  but  it  illumines  only  their  own 
pathway.  Not  only  are  they  passing  through  life  sil- 
ently, but  as  Christians  some  of  them,  in  that  char- 
acter, act  as  if  they  wanted  to  be  unknown.  Once  in 
Pisa,  a  company  was  pointed  out  as  containing  princes. 
No  one  was  to  know  it. 

They  were  traveling  incog. 

This  is  a  method  adopted,  too,  by  many  of  the  children 
of  the  Great  King.  They  are  princes  of  the  Royal 
Blood,  but  prefer  to  be  unknown.  They  avoid,  thus, 
all  responsiblity  for  keeping  up  to  their  princely  char- 
acter. They  are  like  the  seven  thousand  who  had 
never  bowed  to  Baal,  of  whom  even  Elijah  did  not 
know.  They  are  the  Lord's  hidden  ones.  They  have 
only  witnessed  up  to  a  negative  point.  The  best  that 
could  be  said  of  them  was  that  they  had  never  kissed 
Baal.  This  negative  testimony  has  at  best  but  a  sec- 
ondary value.  Sometimes  in  the  discernment  of  this 
fact,  the  children  of  this  world  are  wiser  in  their  gen- 
eration than  the  children  of  light. 

So  was  it  when  a  large  commercial  house  sent  out 
its  traveling  salesman.    He  seemed  to  possess  all  those 

[275] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

qualities  that  would  secure  success.  He  himself  felt 
confident  of  ability;  but  for  some  reason  that  was 
alike  a  surprise  to  him  and  to  the  firm,  he  made  only 
unsuccessful  journeys.  After  thorough  acquaintance 
with  his  methods,  the  senior  member  of  the  firm  asked 
him  into  the  counting  room  to  talk  things  over  and  in 
friendly  fashion  said:  "We  find  that  it  is  your  ten- 
dency on  visiting  a  store  to  spend  more  or  less  time  in 
berating  or  deriding  those  business  houses  that  are  in 
direct  competition  with  us;  you  labor  to  make  it  ap- 
pear that  such  a  competing  house  has  no  standing  in 
our  own  city,  and  this  other  one  is  trembling  on  the 
uncertain  verge  of  bankruptcy.  We  find  that  you 
use  your  opportunity  in  talking  about  them.  What 
we  want  is,  when  you  have  the  ear  of  your  customer, 
that  you  should  talk  about  us.  Talk  about  our 
credit  —  our  facilities  for  doing  business.  Talk  about 
us."  God  is  a  great  business-doer.  In  his  name  we 
are  called  to  travel  into  all  lands  and  among  all  in- 
terests to  represent  him.  Much  depends  not  only 
upon  expression,  but  as  well  upon  the  method  of  it. 
We  have  no  warrant  and  no  occasion  to  antagonize 
anybody.  WTien  we  get  the  ear  of  those  to  whom  we 
are  commissioned  it  is  a  supreme  moment.  The  spirit 
of  the  Divine  Firm  of  Business-doers,  the  Father,  the 
Son,  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  this:  Talk  about  us— Talk 
about  us. 


[276] 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
THAT  ALAEMING  IF 

If  I  had  not  come.    John  15 :  22. 

We  should  not  have  that  painting  which  enchants 
the  world.  No  one  is  known  who  ever  saw  it  and  was 
disappointed.  It  does  not  seem  a  picture,  it  appears 
a  reality.  A  room  is  set  apart  to  it  for  there  is  no 
other  painting  in  its  class  to  keep  it  company.  As  the 
generations  rise  and  fall  there  is  only  one  voice,  and 
that  gives  pre-eminence  to  the  Sistine  Madonna.  It  is 
the  glory  of  Dresden.  It  is  the  honor  of  Europe  and 
the  world.  It  does  not  give  the  impression  of  great 
labor,  but  rather  of  having  been  thrown  off  as  if  it 
were  an  inspiration  of  divine  genius.  When  the 
proper  end  was  reached,  Raphael  stopped  without  put- 
ting any  gilding  on  refined  gold.  We  should  not  have 
had  this  picture,  if  Christ  had  not  come,  nor  the 
Madonna  of  the  Chair,  before  which  the  observer 
stands  transfixed.  It  is  more  than  beautiful. 

It  is  faultless. 

In  its  perfection,  it  seems  to  gather  into  small  space 
all  the  graces  of  the  art  of  painting.  The  mother 
is  seated  and  clasps  her  child  who  turns  his  large 
eyes  with  a  wondering  gaze  toward  the  world  in 
which  he  is  to  take  a  part  never  before  enacted, 

[277] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

and  never  to  be  repeated.  The  eyes  are  those  of  a 
child,  and  yet  their  deep  power  seems  to  tell  the  story, 
in  advance,  of  the  beatitudes,  the  upper  chamber, 
Gethsemane,  The  Mount  of  Olives,  and  Calvary.  Into 
what  an  eclipse  the  earth  would  pass,  if  we  were  to 
lose  those  enshrined  pictures,  which  make  our  Painted 
Bibles,  the  world's  holiest  treasures,  in  which  cul- 
minate the  great  moments  of  hallowed  history  that 
live  in  our  hearts  and  teach  us  reverence  for  sacred 
things.  The  Nativity,  like  a  song  without  words, 
utters  the  universal  language  of  mankind,  and  speaks 
with  moving  eloquence  to  every  soul.  From  that 
scene  in  the  life  of  The  Holy  Family  an  observer  can- 
not bear  to  withdraw  his  eyes,  because  the  figures 
seem  alive.  The  luminous  points  in  it,  appear  to  dif- 
fuse themselves  with  a  supernatural  light.  Raphael 
died  of  the  Transfiguration,  and  at  his  funeral,  with 
a  loveliness  that  seems  almost  divine,  it  hung  over  his 
bier.  But  if  Christ  had  not  come  he  could  not  have 
fulfilled  that  promise,  made  to  his  disciples,  that  he 
would  give  to  some  of  them  a  glimpse  of  his  glory,  as 
proof  that  He  was  Messiah.  Nor  should  we  have  had 
The  Sorrowful  Way  to  Calvary,  when  in  the  picture, 
Jesus,  having  fallen  under  the  cross,  it  is  forced  upon 
Simon  of  Cyrene.  The  unfortunate  world  would  also 
have  lacked  the  picture  of  the  Saviour  and  the 
Tribute  Money,  whose  colors  look  as  if  they  were 
grown  on  the  canvas,  as  they  grow  on  the  petals  of  a 
lily.  There  would  never  have  been  unfolded  to  the 
wondering  gaze  of  men,  that  masterpiece  The  Mar- 

[278] 


THAT   ALARMING  IF 

riage  at  Cana,  in  which  art  seems  to  feel  herself 
peculiarly  interested  and  honored,  and  breathes  an  in- 
spiration directly  received  from  inspiration,  which  we 
know  was  divine.  There  is  a  plain  tendency  with  men 
to  choose  the  form  and  character  of  expression  that 
meets  the  need  of  their  age,  and  if  it  be  religious  we 
have  such  pictures  as  The  Last  Supper, 

The  Last  Judgment, 

most  awe-inspiring  picture  ever  painted,  where  the 
martyrs  are  present,  with  the  symbols  of  the  var- 
ious tortures,  through  which  they  passed  to  immor- 
tality. We  have  the  Elevation  of  the  Cross  and  the 
Descent  from  the  Cross,  before  which  a  visitor  tarried 
spell-bound  to  that  degree  that  his  companion  desired 
him  to  come  along,  to  which  he  replied,  as  in  a  dream, 
"Stop  till  they  get  him  down." 

It  is  fine  to  have  no  disputed  title,  but  to  enjoy 
priority  by  the  verdict  of  the  world.  In  the  Imperial 
City  there  is  an  edifice  which  cost  $50,000,000,  where 
$40,000  are  used  annually  for  repairs,  and  where 
60,000  soldiers  can  parade  its  floor.  It  is  a  cathedral, 
without  equal,  in  elegant  art.  Its  dome,  which  is  its 
most  vast  and  imposing  feature,  from  a  distance  seems 
to  float  in  the  air.  The  interior  has  the  symmetry 
and  sublimity  of  some  great  work  of  nature.  No 
other  dome  so  imposing,  but  that  of  heaven,  was 
ever  spread  above  mortal  eye.  It  is  hard  to  believe 
that  man  has  done  it  all.  It  is  450  feet  from  the  floor. 
Looking  up  to  it,  it  seems  to  belong  to  a  higher  and 
better  sphere.  It  overwhelms  the  observer  with  aston- 

[279] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

ishment  at  the  genius  and  achievement  of  men.  It 
takes  them  captive  and  swallows  them  up  in  its  im- 
mensity. If  Christ  had  not  come  this  harmonious 
temple,  in  its  awfulness  and  majesty,  gathering  up 
within  its  walls,  a  vast  congregation  of  seven 
churches,  would  never  have  been  built.  Among  his 
apostles  was  the  son  of  Jonas,  a  man  of  great  in- 
tensity "who  moved  altogether  when  he  moved  at  all,*' 
who,  when  the  band  that  followed  Christ  seemed  to  be 
breaking  up  and  he  had  said  to  them, 

"Will  ye  also  go  away?" 

replied  in  that  critical  moment,  "To  whom  shall  we 
go?"  It  is  in  honor  of  Peter,  whose  usefulness,  as 
in  the  case  of  many  others,  springs  out  of  some  re- 
covery from  sin,  that  this  church  was  named. 

If  Christ  had  not  come  there  would  also  be 
eliminated  from  the  most  progressive  and  prosperous 
of  the  Italian  cities  the  Milan  Cathedral.  At  near 
view  it  seems  stained  a  little  but  from  a  distance  it 
glistens  with  dazzling  whiteness  like  Mt.  Blanc  at  noon 
day  and  as  overpowering.  Nearly  4,000  statues  fill  its 
niches  and  canopies  and  stand  upon  its  pinnacles,  in  a 
wilderness  of  marble  columns.  One  hundred  and 
eighty  priests  are  connected  with  its  observances,  and 
fifty  are  seen  at  a  single  service.  That  miracle  of  art, 
universally  admired,  which  has  attained  the  good  old 
age  of  800  years,  The  Florence  Cathedral,  nothing  like 
it  had  ever  existed  before,  would  never  have  expressed 
its  heavenly  purity,  nor  have  revealed  the  graceful 
outlines  and  delicacy  of  its  figures.  Nor  would  The 

[280] 


THAT   ALARMING  IF 

Campanile,  with  its  slender  proportions  and  queenly 
elegance  of  form.  Nor  would  the  Cologne  Cathedral, 
nor  The  York,  which  has  lived  a  millenium,  which 
dwarfs  the  whole  city,  in  which  the  great  Constantine 
assumed  the  imperial  purple,  and  which,  when  built, 
would  have  held  its  entire  population,  nor  Dublin,  nor 
Canterbury,  nor  Chester,  nor  Notre  Dame,  whose  por- 
tals are  of  almost  unequalled  grandeur,  and  whose 
three  large  rose  windows  are  the  most  beautiful  in 
Europe,  and  from  whose  roof  the  limits  of  Paris  seem 
almost  co-extensive  with  the  visible  horizon.  Nor 
Westminster  Abbey,  whose  monuments  epitomize  a 
nation's  history.  Nor  the  Cathedral  in  Pisa,  whose 
swinging  lamp  suspended  from  the  ceiling  taught 
Galileo,  at  19,  the  law  of  the  pendulum,  which  he  was 
first  to  apply  as  a  measure  of  time.  Ajid  no  splendid 
mausoleum  and  monument  of  St.  Mark,  the  humble 
shoemaker  evangelist,  with  its  columns  brought  from 
the  Holy  Land,  its  statues  captured  from  subjugated 
nations,  in  Venice,  that  city  of  poetry  and  splendor 
that  floats  like  a  picture  on  the  sea. 

The  thought  suggested  by  the  Saviour  in  the  text 
shakes  a  devoted  Christian  all  up. 

The  mere  suggestion  agitates  his  mind. 
He  explores  the  pages  of  history  and  reads  the  annals 
of  all  our  organizations  in  vain  to  find  misfortunes 
that  would  be  comparable  to  it.  Archimedes  was  so 
fluttered  by  his  discovery,  of  a  method  of  ascertaining 
the  bulk  and  weight  of  an  object  that  in  the  streets,  he 
exclaimed,  Eureka.  His  plan  seems  to  have  been,  to 

[281] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOW 

judge  of  a  thing,  by  the  void  it  would  make,  when 
taken  away.  Place  a  kingly  crown  in  water  and  reg- 
ister the  uplift.  Withdraw  the  crown  and  note  the 
fall,  and  you  know  the  amount  of  material  you  have. 
The  most  suggestive  measure  of  anything  is  to  make  it 
a  negative  quantity.  Detach  the  engine  from  the  load, 
withdraw  the  capital  from  a  business,  take  the  mother 
from  the  home,  and  the  difference  tells  the  story.  If 
Christ  had  not  come  we  should  not  have  had  Handel's 
Oratorio  of  the  Messiah.  There  is  a  kind  of  rapture 
in  properly  hearing  it.  It  engrosses  the  whole  being. 
Every  sense  is  flooded  with  delight.  A  new  exalted 
feeling  thrills  the  soul.  A  quickening  breath  sweeps 
over  a  concourse  of  people  when  a  soloist  of  quality 
with  power,  with  conviction  and  religious  feeling  is 
about  to  affirm  in  song,  I  Know  That  My  Redeemer 
Liveth.  Persons,  under  the  sway  of  her  spirit,  turn 
and  look  where  she  is  looking,  as  she  makes  a  reverent 
pause  and  then  exclaims  with  real  emotion,  I  shall  see 
God. 

It  preaches  like  a  sermon. 

It  lifts  like  an  oration.  It  inspires  like  a  poem.  In 
the  atmosphere  of  a  great  revival,  Handel  produced 
his  unrivaled  work,  and  the  moving  composition 
shows  it.  A  few  years  ago  a  wide,  almost  world- 
wide canvass  was  made  and  vote  taken  touching  our 
favorite  hymns,  and  a  decree  was  uttered  touching  the 
order  in  which  they  stand,  in  popular  favor,  by  a 
process  that  is  called  a  plebiscite.  A  person  is  no- 
tional, speaking  only  for  himself,  in  naming  his  first 

[282] 


THAT   ALARMING   IF 

choice,  which  is  based,  on  some  individual  exper- 
ience or  taste  or  incident.  But  in  a  second  and  later 
selection  he  acts  with  others  and  gives  a  true  ver- 
dict. Here  are  one  hundred  hymns  which  the  world 
has  taken  to  its  heart  in  the  stress  of  life,  in  hours  of 
exaltation,  of  religious  feeling,  in  days  of  sorrow  and 
of  joy.  They  are  the  organ  of  the  soul's  deepest  ex- 
pression. What  calamity  would  befall  mankind  and 
the  church  and  the  believer  and  even  the  wayfarer  in 
the  matter  of  these  one  hundred  hymns,  almost  every 
one  of  which  tells  of  Christ,  often  heard  under  pa- 
thetic conditions,  if  the  world  had  been  stripped  and 
impoverished.  A  lesser  loss  to  the  earth  would  be  its 
public  buildings  and  its  fortune.  What  beggary 
would  come  to  us  if  we  were  dispossessed  of  the  mem- 
ory of  those  Christian  hymns  that  were  used  in  lifting 
our  souls  into  unison  with  our  God  and  Saviour  when 
the  skies  and  earth  seemed  united  by  a  ladder  as  in 
Jacob's  dream  at  Bethel  and  when 

Heaven  comes  down  our  souls  to  greet 
And  glory  crowns  the  mercy  seat. 


[283] 


CHAPTER  XXX 
DOING  THE  HANDSOME  THING 

Go  with  him  twain.     Matt.  5 :  41. 

It  is  Old  Home  Week  in  a  rural  New  England 
community.  Business  is  practically  suspended.  All 
doors  are  set  open,  in  a  spirit  of  unfeigned  hospitality. 
The  residents  resolve  to  stop  at  nothing  in  showing 
welcome  to  those  who  travel  far  in  coming  to  see  them. 
A  distinguished  visitor,  absent  from  the  place  for  a 
generation,  makes  inquiry,  "Where  does  the  teacher 
live  whose  school  I  once  attended?"  "I  can  show 
you/'  replies  a  resident.  On  the  way,  the  names  of 
the  pupils  in  the  ancient  school  are  told  over.  ' '  From 
the  schoolmaster's  I  will  go  with  you  to  the  home  of 
one  of  them.  In  his  infirmities  it  will  do  him  good, 
like  a  medicine,  to  see  you."  The  resident  repre- 
sented the  spirit  of  the  whole  town,  becomes  ac- 
quainted with  the  visitor  and  so  likes  him.  It  is  the 
way  of  the  world.  The  Biblical  spirit  implies  more 
leisure  than  most  of  us  feel  that  we  have.  It  would 
show  in  the  amenities  of  life.  The  citizen  felt  a  form 
of  compulsion  to  go  with  the  visitor  one  mile.  Then 
follows  a  generous  self-impulse  which  savors  of  his 
own  personality.  He  went  with  him  twain.  Not  of 

[284] 


DOING  THE  HANDSOME   THING 

necessity,  as  Paul  says,  but  willingly.     This  crowns 
his  work. 

It  is  the  glory  of  the  second  mile. 
Dr.  Robert  Dawbarn,  of  New  York  City,  was  styled  a 
second-mile  surgeon.  After  an  operation,  in  sewing 
up  a  wound,  he  always  tied  three  knots  when  the  cus- 
tom was  to  tie  only  one.  Asked  about  it,  he  replied, 
1  'The  third  is  my  sleeping  knot."  Repose  is  sweeter 
when  no  task  is  left  half  finished.  I  have  read  of  a 
nurse  who  does  her  work  well,  up  to  the  routine  limit. 
At  that  point  she  begins  to  hesitate.  A  patient  is 
quick  to  detect  a  spirit  of  reluctance.  The  nurse  is 
like  a  boy,  with  an  examination  coming,  whose  only 
thought  is  to  "get  by."  Whoever  invented  that 
execrable  expression.  The  evil  that  men  do  lives 
after  them.  One  idea  is  to  do  the  handsome  thing,  to 
render  uncompelled  service.  The  other  is  to  do  only 
enough  to  "get  by."  Familiarity  with  this  phrase, 
suggests  to  some  a  program.  It  is  a  stony-hearted, 
cloven-footed  guide  toward  doing  less  than  the  best. 
It  was  an  evil  hour  when  it  got  loose  in  the  world. 
The  introduction  of  it  is  like  that  of  the  gypsy  moth. 
The  man  who  introduced  it  thought  he  was  doing  a 
smart  thing.  His  plan  was  to  get  silk  at  less  than 
silk  prices.  A  statesman  electrified  the  country,  with 
the  hearty  announcement,  which  it  seems  scarcely 
possible  to  quote  without  commendation,  that  he  did 
not  belong  to  his  party  a  little.  He  did  not  just 
barely  stand  for  its  principles,  in  a  certain  degree,  to 
some  extent,  passably,  possibly.  Old  fashioned  people 

[285] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

had  a  heart,  believed  the  Bible  was  inspired  because 
it  inspired  them,  thinking  that  it  could  not  give  what 
it  did  not  have,  and  they  gave  us,  on  the  rule  of  love 
principles,  the  quaint  expression,  Scripture  measure, 
the  kind  that  is  pressed  down,  and  shaken  together 
and  running  over. 

It  was  their  good  manners. 

Instead  of  stamping  a  bill,  Paid,  they  wrote  Paid  in 
full.  The  act  had  a  Bible  flavor  in  it.  Religion,  life 
consist  not  in  verbs,  activities  alone,  but  in  adverbs 
as  well  of  quality  and  method. 

Let  us  see  Rebecca  " Queen  it."  "Let  down  thy 
pitcher  I  pray  thee  that  I  may  drink/'  said  Abra- 
ham's servant  to  her  at  the  well.  And  when  she  had 
done  giving  him  drink,  she  said,  "I  will  draw  water 
for  thy  camels  also."  She  did  the  handsome  thing. 
That's  her  high  nature.  She  did  not  try  to  get  by 
with  the  least  she  could  do.  It  is  a  key  to  character. 
One  party  in  this  incident  is  a  shrewd,  responsible, 
well-tried,  thoroughly  trusted  man  of  the  world,  act- 
ing wholly  on  the  merits  of  the  case,  having  full  com- 
mission to  choose  a  wife  for  Isaac.  The  trait  that 
Rebecca,  a  damsel  very  fair  to  look  upon,  exhibited, 
adding  quality  to  beauty,  was  clearly  defined  in  ad- 
vance. On  his  long  journey  he  had  a  chance  to  think 
things  over.  There  was,  in  his  mind,  one  character- 
istic principle  and  but  one.  It  was  a  trait  that  could 
not  be  overlooked.  It  is  a  characteristic  that  has  a 
peculiar,  finding  quality  in  it.  He  waived  other  mat- 
ters, or  merged  them  in  this,  and  here  is  the  heart  of 

[286] 


DOING  THE  HANDSOME   THING 

my  theme.  Let  her  show  that  she  is  in  her  nature, 
gracious.  Any  other  good  qualities  that  she  is  found, 
on  later  acquaintance,  to  possess  will  be  properly  ac- 
credited, but  in  her  native  disposition,  there  is  a  shin- 
ing, lustrous,  dominating  quality  around  which  all 
others,  like  satellites,  revolve,  which  is  indispensable, 
and  that  is  graciousness.  Knowing  that  thou  wilt  do 
more  than  I  say.  That  characteristic  was  right  there. 
She  showed  it. 

It  is  an  angel  trait. 

All  unconscious  of  what  was  at  stake,  she  met  the  test. 
How  pleasant  it  is  to  see  her  rise  at  the  supreme 
moment.  She  rang  true.  There  is  a  kind  of  crystaliza- 
tion  in  the  circumstances  of  life.  It  is  pinnacle  of  ex- 
perience. "She  let  down  her  pitcher. "  I  drank  and 
then  she  made  the  camels  drink  also,  "also"  being  the 
pivotal  word.  I  put  the  earring  upon  her  face  and  the 
bracelets  upon  her  hand  and  I  bowed  my  head  and 
worshipped.  The  poet  who  said,  An  honest  man's  the 
noblest  work  of  God  did  not  know  about  Rebecca.  We 
fortunately  can  follow  her  life  based  on  this  super- 
lative trait.  They  were  married  and  lived  happy  ever 
after.  Shakespeare  covets  this  fine  quality  for  Desde- 
mona  and  makes  lago  say  of  her,  *  '  She  holds  it  a  vice 
in  her  goodness  not  to  do  more  than  is  requested." 
"Gimpers"  in  the  world  war  are  those  who  do  a  little 
better  than  they  have  to,  and  to  promote  this  spirit 
they  have  organized  "The  Gimper  Escadrille."  There 
is  a  stammering  in  action  which  is  more  unfortunate 
than  stammering  in  words. 

[287] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

We  sometimes  say  of  a  person  that  he  hesitates  in 
speech.  Simon  the  Pharisee,  he  of  the  marble  heart, 
showed  hesitation  at  the  very  point  where  Rebecca  so 
radiantly  shines.  He  affected  to  be  host  to  the  Lord, 
yet  he  holds  himself  back,  as  if  seeking  to  settle  at  the 
lowest  terms.  His  home  became  a  place  of  mark  by 
giving  entertainment,  but  there  was  no  heart  in  it, 
and  he  was  obviously  making  it  a  matter  of  the  least 
possible  trouble.  His  idea  is,  in  the  vernacular,  to  get 
by,  only  this  and  nothing  more.  As  stated  in  the 
prayer  book,  he  has  left  undone  the  things  which 
he  ought  to  have  done.  He  was  a  canny,  shrewd  man, 
but  never  exposed  to  any  fatality  from  enlargement 
of  the  heart.  If  he  ever  laughed  he  never  laughed 
heartily,  as  he  does  nothing  else  heartily.  He  is  not 
a  man  who  would  say,  My  cup  runneth  over.  Some 
things  he  would  do  pretty  well,  and  some  could  not 
well  be  much  worse.  His  instruction  to  his  clerks 
would  be,  Do  not  give  too  much  merchandise  to  the 
shilling.  The  Saviour's  sensitiveness,  noted  limita- 
tions, in  the  spirit  of  hospitality,  and  when  events 
forced  some  expression  from  him,  he  said  plainly, 
Thou  gavest  me  no  water  for  my  feet.  My  head  with 
oil  thou  didst  not  anoint.  This  host  hedged  himself 
with  a  palisade.  He  did  his  guest  a  kind  of  denatured 
courtesy. 

It  was  as  cold  as  chanty. 

There  was  no  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  formal  in- 
vitation, but,  as  usual  with  Pharisees,  cold-hearted  as 
the  elder  brother,  ungenerous  as  Shylock  the  chill 

[288] 


DOING  THE  HANDSOME   THING 

came  from  a  sparing,  stinted,  doling  spirit  which  be- 
gan at  the  door.  To  have  done  only  that  which  it  was 
our  duty  to  do  is  to  have  been  unprofitable  servants. 

And  Elisha  said  unto  the  king,  Smite  upon  the 
ground,  and  he  smote  thrice  and  stayed.  And  the 
man  of  God  was  wroth  with  him,  Thou  shouldst  have 
smitten  five  or  six  times.  He  was  one  of  these  men 
that  do  not  fit  in  with  a  plan  that  has  earnest  feeling 
in  it.  He  is  not  the  kind  that  leaves  no  stone  un- 
turned to  compass  his  object.  His  idea  is  to  do  pretty 
well,  or  well  enough,  to  a  degree,  to  a  certain  extent. 
In  the  place  of  shields  of  gold,  which  Solomon  had 
supplied,  Rehoboam  put  shields  of  brass,  thus  express- 
ing his  nature  as  well  as  his  idea,  that  an  inferior 
article  would  answer  the  purpose. 

Beside  economizing  one's  self,  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  stingy  receiver.  The  gift  was  very  nice,  but 
he  does  not  feel  the  need  of  doing  anything  about  it. 
It  might  have  come  from  one  who  is,  by  ill  health  or 
age,  retired  from  the  interplay  of  life  and  so  finds 
pleasure  in  supplying  the  wherewithal  to  those  still 
active  in  a  needy  world. 

Did  the  gift  do  good? 

In  what  way  ?  At  what  point  ?  In  what  measure  ?  But 
the  tongue  tied  receiver  cuts  short  the  history  of  a  gift. 
When  once  it  is  received  any  pleasure  in  its  subse- 
quent interesting  or  useful  story  is  not  shared,  with 
the  one  who  originated  the  gift.  This  Is  about  the 
worst  form  of  heart  failure.  Another  ungenerous 

[289] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

receiver  is  one,  who  fails  to  recognize  any  abounding 
measure  of  personal  service,  with  the  result,  that  the 
person  rendering  the  service,  failing  to  win  any  praise, 
soon  ceases  any  particulr  effort  to  deserve  it. 

There  are  some  of  us  who,  from  study  of  it,  have 
so  come  to  love  the  Bible  that  like  the  angel  with  the 
little  book  we  could  eat  it  up.  Its  words,  the  Psalm- 
ist said,  were  sweet  to  his  taste,  sweeter  than  honey  to 
his  mouth.  One's  taste  for  it  grows,  also  his  regard, 
when  he  finds  that  human  nature  in  its  most  modern 
ways,  and  in  its  utterances,  that  seem  real  new  and 
very  human,  are  matters  of  record  in  the  best  of  books. 
The  Bible  speaks  of ' '  The  Other  Side. ' '  Both  a  priest 
and  a  Levite  came  where  the  wounded  man  was,  whom 
the  robbers  beat  up.  And  there  was  a  clear  sugges- 
tion of  duty.  But  their  disposition  expressed  in 
latest  phrase  was  to  get  by.  But  the  Scripture  in  finer 
expression  pictures  them  as  sidestepping  by  taking  to 
the  other  side  of  the  road.  That  was  not  the  side 
taken  by  the  Good  Samaritan  who  made  the  man  his 
guest  at  the  inn,  took  care  of  him,  saw  the  man 
through  the  first  night  after  his  injuries,  and  was 
lavish  of  himself.  On  the  morrow,  as  he  departed 
after  every  bill  was  paid,  after  all  was  said  and  done 
he  gave  an  added  touch.  It  has  the  element  of  nicety 
about  it.  It  gilds  everything  with  exquisite,  delicate 
finish.  He  took  out  some  money  and  gave  it  to  the 
host.  This  gives  his  work  completeness. 
He  carries  the  thing  through. 
The  last  act  has  the  consistency  and  the  cumulative 

[290] 


DOING  THE  HANDSOME   THING 

power  of  fine  breeding,  and  unerring  instinct.  This 
endows  the  mind  with  another  sense.  It  shows  a  golden 
trimmed  virtue.  It  is  the  coronation  of  philanthropy. 
' '  I  do  not  think, ' '  some  one  said, ' '  that  all  the  machine 
charity  of  the  world,  however  sincere,  however  honest, 
will  ever  make  up  for  exalted  personal  service."  It  is 
not  work  done  by  compulsion.  It  looks  toward  a  re- 
ward that  is  not  of  earth.  Them  that  honor  me  I  will 
honor.  It  is  said  that  money  talks.  Those  two  entirely 
extra,  unsolicited  pence  talk  with  indescribable  charm. 
They  reveal  the  inner  princely  nature  of  a  man  who 
has  the  unfailing  instinct  to  do  the  handsome  thing. 

We  live  together  many  years, 

And  leave  unsounded  still 
Each  other's  springs  of  hopes  and  fears, 

Each  other's  depth  of  will : 
We  live  together  day  by  day, 

And  some  chance  look  or  tone 
Lights  up  with  instantaneous  ray 

An  inner  world  unknown. 


[291] 


CHAPTER  XXXI 
EAGLES  ADOPT  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

An  eagle  stirreth  up  her  nest,  fluttereth  over  her  young, 
spreadeth  abroad  her  wings,  taketh  them,  beareth  them  on 
her  wings.  Deut.  32 :  11,  12. 

Standing  in  his  door,  a  ship  captain  said,  "You 
see  that  solitary  gigantic  tree  yonder.  It  is  the  home 
of  an  eagle.  The  nest  is,  like  herself,  a  royal  affair, 
four  or  five  feet  in  height  and  as  much  in  diameter. 
It  contains  a  cart-load  of  material.  From  her  lofty 
perch  the  American  bird,  with  extraordinary  power 
of  vision  can  survey  her  neighborhood  for  miles 
around.  Upon  a  towering  pinnacle  of  rock,  near  the 
entrance  to  Yellow  Stone  Park,  the  Wonderland  of 
the  Republic,  is  an  eagle's  nest.  Poised  above  it, 
statuelike,  with  broad  expansive  wings  outspread,  is 
seen  our  bird  of  freedom,  a  watchful  sentinel,  the 
embodiment  of  strength  and  majesty,  thrilling  the 
beholder  to  the  heart.  Only  one  brood  is  reared  each 
season,  but  they  are  eagles!  The  mating  of  the  par- 
ent birds  lasts  as  long  as  both  survive.  The  feature 
of  their  home  is  its  abundance  of  food,  which,  from 
over  supply,  falls  even  in  great  quantities  to  the 
ground. 

Our  national  bird  will  carry  a  lamb  equal  to  her 

[292] 


EAGLES  ADOPT  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

own  weight  to  her  nestlings  that  have  an  inactive  life 
and  a  continual  feast.  They  remain  in  the  nest  an 
incredible  time  and  part  themselves  from  it  with  the 
greatest  reluctance.  When  the  ousting  begins  neigh- 
boring people  come  forth  from  their  doors  and  wonder 
at  the  violence,  the  aggressive  spirit,  the  public  de- 
monstration, and  the  noise.  The  best  specimen  of  the 
feathered  tribe  stirreth  up  her  nest  because  the  heavy, 
over-fed,  dormant  nestlings  are  eagles.  They  have 
been  satisfied  with  ease,  and  with  their  spacious,  well 
appointed  home,  hence  with  noble  instinct,  as  if  di- 
rectly, Divinely  guided,  the  nest  is  stirred  up,  made 
uninhabitable,  turned  inside  out  that  the  eaglets  may 
come  to  themselves.  They  are  Monarchs  of  the  air. 
They  have  the  Eagle  nature  and  the  Eagle  qualities. 
Those  who  have  dabbled  a  little  in  Latin  are  ever 
declaiming  with  the  swing  of  conquest,  a  stale, 
weather-beaten,  moss-grown  line,  "gone  out  through 
all  the  earth  and  its  words  to  the  end  of  the  world," 

"I  sing  the  arms  and  the  man," 
with  which  Virgil  begins  his  masterpiece.  As  the  sound 
dies  down,  another  class  advances,  like  a  tenth  wave 
upon  the  shore,  reciting  the  battered  translation,  now 
worn  to  a  thread,  ' '  I  sing  the  arms  and  the  hero, ' '  and 
set  out  with  eloquent  admiration  his  achievements, 
great  honors  and  immortal  praise.  But  there  are  three 
words  which  are  unaccented,  slurred  over,  muffled  in 
this  glorious  verse.  "I  sing  the  arms  and  the  hero 
who  first,  exiled  by  fate, ' '  came  from  the  coast  of  Troy. 
On  this  parenthesis  "exiled  by  fate"  the  stately  nar- 

[293] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

rative  turns.  Back  of  all  accomplishment,  honors, 
fame,  lay  a  merciless  stirring  of  the  nest,  inexorable 
expulsion,  a  heartless,  unwelcome  ejection. 

"There  is  a  local  feeling"  exclaimed  our  most 
renowned  orator  at  Plymouth,  with  great  depth  of 
emotion,  "too  strong  to  be  resisted,"  a  sort  of  genius 
of  the  place  which  inspires  and  awes  us.  We  feel  that 
we  are  on  the  spot  where  the  scene  of  our  first  history 
was  laid." 

"The  breaking  waves  dashed  high 

On  a  stern  and  rockbound  coast, 
And  the  woods  against  a  stormy  sky 
Their  giant  branches  tossed. 

What  sought  they  thus  afar? 

Bright  jewels  of  the  mine, 
The  wealth  of  seas,  the  spoils  of  war? 

They  sought  a  f  aith's  pure  shrine." 

What  a  perversion  of  history  it  is  in  both  song  and 
oratory  to  begin  the  life  of  the  Pilgrims  with  the 
landing  on  Plymouth  Rock.  Their  nest  at  Scrooby 
with  violence  had  been  broken  up.  They  had  been 
dislodged.  It  was  heart  breaking.  They  underwent 
affliction  and  anguish;  a  soulless  dislodgment  lay  be- 
hind their  brilliant  record  here  which  has  brightened 
with  the  years. 

Franklin  seats  himself  abroad  and  reads  to  an 
admiring  group  the  story  of  Ruth,  and  the  captivated 
company  exclaim  almost  in  unison,  "That  is  the  fin- 
est thing  in  any  language."  Ruth  became  the  an- 

[294] 


EAGLES  ADOPT  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

cestress  of  our  beloved  Lord.  What  delight  he  must 
have  felt  at  the  mention  of  her  name,  and  of  the 
tender  incidents  that  attended  her  career !  What  heart 
has  not  been  touched  with  that  exquisite  protestation 
of  pure  affection  addressed  by  her  to  Naomi, 
" Whither  thou  goest,  I  will  go." 

"Thy  people  shall  be  my  people." 

But  why  is  Naomi  in  the  land  of  Moab  at  all? 
Grim  hunger  did  it.  The  gaunt  wolf  was  looking  in 
at  the  door.  Desperate  necessity  breaks  up  the  home. 
They  are  driven  forth  by  pitiless  want.  The  nest  was 
stirred  up  and  made  untenable.  We  catch  at  the 
roseate  side  of  the  narrative  and  forget  the  bitter- 
sweet. Review  the  history  from  end  to  end  and  we 
see  no  way  to  have  the  charm,  the  pathos,  the  felicity, 
without  the  harsh  expulsion,  and  the  grief. 

The  children  of  Israel  cherish  fondly  the  time 
4 'when  we  sat  by  the  fleshpots  of  Egypt,  and  when 
we  did  eat  bread  to  the  full."  They  had  to  be  har- 
ried by  Pharaoh,  lashed  by  task-masters,  tormented 
by  plagues,  life  made  unendurable,  before  they  would 
make  the  start  for  a  promised  land  that  flowed  with 
milk  and  honey. 

Jacob,  the  typical  Jew,  a  little  inclined  to  live 
and  thrive  at  the  expense  of  his  brother,  was  a 
mother's  boy,  disposed  to  have  Esau  a  wild  man  do 
the  running,  and  himself,  meanwhile,  easily  absorb 
the  family  wealth.  No  good  and  quiet  boy  could  ever 
be  more  to  his  mother's  mind.  But  before  his  name 
was  ever  changed  to  Israel  and  ere  he  developed  the 

[295] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

qualities  that  go  with  the  new  name,  even  his  doting 
mother  must  stir  up  the  nest  and  send  this  idle  boy 
about  his  business,  saying  "Arise,  flee.  Thy  brother 
Esau  as  touching  thee  doth  purpose  to  kill  thee. ' ' 

The  father  of  General  Lew  Wallace  sent  him  to 
school,  but  very  much  to  the  boy's  discredit,  failed  to 
secure  anything  like  regular  attendance  at  recitations, 
or  even  a  decent  attempt  to  master  his  lessons.  His 
time  was  spent  in  fishing,  hunting,  and  roaming 
through  the  woods.  When  a  search  was  made  for  him 
he  was  carefully  hidden  among  the  trees,  lying  upon 
his  elbows,  maunching  an  apple.  At  length  his  father, 
a  lawyer,  called  him  into  his  office,  and  reaching  into 
a  pigeon-hole  of  his  desk,  took  down  a  package  of 
papers  which  were  the  receipts  for  tuition  which  he 
had  paid  on  the  lad's  account,  and  asked  him  to  add 
them,  as  he  called  them  off.  "That  sum  represents 
what  I  have  expended ;  after  mature  reflection  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  I  have  done  for  you  all 
that  can  reasonably  be  expected  of  any  parent.  And 
I  have  therefore  called  you  in  to  tell  you  that  you 
have  now  reached  an  age  when  you  must  take  up  the 
lines  yourself." 

The  boy  was  staggered. 

He  was  electrified. 

His  noble  powers  were  at  once  called  into  use.  Copies 
of  a  single  work  of  his  have  been  translated  into  all 
languages,  from  the  French  to  the  Arabic.  The  room 
in  which  it  was  begun  has  become  a  shrine  in  the 
governor's  palace  at  Santa  Fe,  and  700,000  copies 

[296] 


EAGLES  ADOPT  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

of  it  have  been  issued,  and  when  we  rejoice  most  in 
the  distinguished  author's  glorious  achievements  we 
must  not  overlook  the  faithful  father's  fruitful 
method. 

"We  have,  however,  at  length,  found  a  mother 
who  feels  that  the  nest,  with  its  comfort  and  its 
abundant  parental  supplies,  is  none  too  good  for  her 
son  of  twenty-five,  who  weighs  two  hundred  pounds. 
She  felt  him  too  inexperienced  for  the  task  he  was 
expected  to  perform.  She  had  him  a  splendid  sup- 
per, and  her  husband  told  her  that  she  had  done  well 
in  getting  her  son  early  to  bed  that  he  might  rise 
early  and  reach  his  work  on  time.  "He  is  not  going 
to  work  tomorrow.  I  telephoned  the  man  that  he 
must  get  someone  else  to  do  his  work.  I  am  not  going 
to  let  him  make  a  slave  of  my  boy. ' ' 

You  must  have  noticed  in  the  various  biographies 
how  sad  the  partings  always  are,  of  a  boy  from  his 
home  and  mother,  as  he  goes  forth  to  enter  upon  his 
individual  career.  It  was  so  with  Dwight  L.  Moody, 
who  was  found  crying  at  the  top  of  the  hill, 

The  Home-Sick  Mount, 

which  was  separating  him  from  Northfield  and  his 
mother.  It  is  real  sorrow,  when  a  timid  boy,  by  some 
stern  necessity  is  bundled  out  of  the  home  nest. 

The  mother  of  Philip  H.  Sheridan  was  strongly 
opposed  to  his  going  to  West  Point,  for  she  said  it 
was  too  much  like  going  out  of  the  world.  At  seven- 
teen, having  borrowed  $50  from  James  Gallin,  the 
day  he  was  to  leave,  he  was  greatly  grieved  at  the 

[297] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

sadness  his  going  away  had  caused  his  warin-hearted 
Irish  mother.  Yet  he  was  fully  determined.  He 
would  cry  and  then  go  out  to  the  rain  barrel  and  wash 
his  face  and  come  back  into  the  house,  unwilling  to 
yield  his  hope  of  a  career,  but  sorry  to  cause  such 
grief  to  his  beloved  mother.  He  came  to  be  ranked, 
both  by  Grant  and  Von  Moltke,  the  great  field  marshal 
in  the  world.  It  was  only  by  leaving  the  home  nest 
that  he  was  enabled  to  write  his  name  among  the  im- 
mortals. A  hardy,  young  plant  transplanted  to  a 
strange,  unsocial  soil,  may  droop  for  a  day,  but  soon 
begins  to  raise  its  head  and  to  flourish,  basking  in  a 
new  affluence  of  sunshine  and  nourishment  and  room. 

The  eagle  fluttereth  over  her  young. 
They  are  inclined  to  gorge  and  doze.  She  whips 
the  nest.  There  are  the  eaglet  and  an  easy  berth. 
The  mother  bird  is  trying  to  get  them  apart.  Her 
operation  seems  almost  human,  An  over-indulgent 
father  was  known  to  have  a  boy  and  $100.  And  the 
president  of  a  college  wrote  him,  advising  him  to 
keep  them  apart.  A  certain  portion  of  the  commun- 
ity, emancipated  from  the  necessity  of  toil,  adhere  to 
the  nest,  its  leisure,  its  contentment,  and  its  stagnat- 
ing, complacent  self-conceit.  The  great  apostle 
gloried  in  tribulation.  The  word  is  derived  from 
tribulum,  which  means,  the  flail,  used  in  threshing 
out  the  grain.  The  eagle's  wing  comes  down  like  a 
flail.  For  the  present  it  seemeth  grievous.  You  do 
not  know  a  man  very  well  unless  you  can  tell  when 

[298] 


EAGLES  ADOPT  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

he  found  himself,  and  how  it  all  came  about.  This 
was  his  soul's  awakening,  his  rebirth. 

The  eagle  fluttereth  over  her  young,  spreadeth 
abroad  her  wings,  taketh  them,  beareth  them  on  her 
wings,  and  soars,  an  aerial  car,  out  for  a  sail.  They 
are  in  their  element.  There  is  one  generation,  with 
complete  sympathy,  entire  devotion,  putting  its 
strength,  its  skill,  all  its  acquisition  under  the  next 
generation  to  develop  its  individuality,  widen  its  out- 
look, and  develop  its  full  and  large  capacity. 

It  is  the  Bible's  finest  drama 

of  helping  other  to  help  themselves.  It  is  almost  the- 
atric in  the  vivid,  picturesque,  and  perfectly  natural 
participation  by  the  actors,  each  one  so  strongly  and 
promptly  taking  his  part.  Thus,  Henry  F.  Durant 
dealt  in  early  days  with  Wellesiey  College,  becoming, 
under  God,  a  strengthening  blessing.  Thus  dealt  the 
United  States  with  the  Philippines.  If  Cuba  should 
be  erased  from  the  map  of  the  world,  if  twelve  hun- 
dred islands  between  Borneo  and  China  should  be 
sunk  into  the  Pacific  Sea,  if  Luzon  and  Manilla  and 
Funston  and  Aguinaldo  and  the  clever  ruse  by  which 
he  was  captured  should  be  forgotten  by  men,  the  af- 
fecting vital  lesson  would  still  remain,  in  which  a 
great  nation  with  only  benevolent  design,  put  her 
strength  under  the  benighted  islanders,  victims  of  op- 
pressive rulers,  and  lifted  them  to  a  new  vision  and 
with  the  soul's  awakening  enabled  them  to  discover 
their  latent  powers. 

The  eagle  appears  at  her  best,  and  does  her  best 

[299] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

as  she  gives  to  the  young  their  first  lessons  in  a  school 
of  aviation.  It  has  been  supposed  and  taught  that 
each  of  us,  if  normal,  has  five  senses,  sight,  hearing, 
taste,  smell,  and  touch,  and  that  these  are  all  we  can 
have,  or  need.  But  the  bird  man  claims,  in  the  name 
of  science,  that  there  is  a  sixth  sense  as  real  as  any 
of  the  other  five.  It  is  equilibrium,  or  balance.  When 
a  person  walks  he  only 

Falls  forward  and  catches  himself, 
which  require  practice  as  seen  in  the  case  of  a 
child.  But  the  aviator  keeps  his  bearings  by  an  in- 
stinctive faculty  or  adjustment  and  equipoise,  and  an 
intuitive  sense  of  relations.  If  he  is  too  heavily 
loaded  on  one  side  he  feels  it.  Some  young  people 
are  all  poetry,  all  fiction,  all  sentiment.  They  are 
lacking  on  the  side  of  experience  and  a  common  re- 
gard for  the  stern  facts  of  life.  Here  we  have  a 
practice  school  in  symmetrical  development,  in  keep- 
ing one's  poise  in  times  of  stress,  of  great  excitement, 
in  days  of  war,  amid  national  upheavals,  in  changed 
conditions  of  life,  of  prosperity,  and  of  new  sur- 
roundings. 

The  queen  among  American  women,  the  most 
popular  lady  in  the  land,  when  inheriting  great 
wealth  which  turns  the  heads  of  many,  while  receiv- 
ing adulation  which  often  causes  giddiness,  and  while 
dispensing  a  royal  charity  which  makes  many  per- 
sons purse-proud  and  heady,  exhibits  this  fine  quality 
of  poise,  balance,  steadiness.  She  finds  a  little  out- 
cast thrown  out  of  his  nest  and  left  thus  on  the  cold 

[300] 


EAGLES  ADOPT  INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION 

steps  of  a  cathedral.  She  spreads  abroad  her  gentle, 
benevolent  wings,  taketh  him,  beareth  him  on  her 
wings,  nameth  him  after  her  husband,  seateth  him  at 
her  table,  and  feedeth  him  of  the  king's  meat.  Helen, 
in  history,  stands  forever  as  the  prototype  of  feminine 
beauty.  Saint  Helen  discovered  the  holy  sepulchre 
and  the  true  cross.  Her  zeal  and  religion  made  her  a 
favorite  with  Christian  writers,  who  caused  her  to  be 
canonized.  Little  Finley  B.  Shepherd,  solitary,  as- 
sociated only  with  adults,  distends  his  young  life  to- 
ward theirs,  making  him  old  before  his  time.  So  that 
select  spirit,  his  renowned,  princely  mother,  our 
American  Helen,  does  an  act  more  distinctively 
Christ-like  than  constructing  the  Hall  of  Fame,  more 
nearly  on  the  New  Testament  level,  like  her  personal 
care  of  sick  and  convalescent  soldiers  at  Camp  Wy- 
koff  when  she,  spreading  abroad  again  her  hospitable 
wings,  taketh  three  other  children  into  her  Tarrytown 
and  Fifth  Avenue  home  to  be  the  companions  and 
mates  of  her  adopted  son  that  all  of  them  may  be 
children  together  and  help  educate  one  another. 
Blessed  among  women  shall  she  be,  for  "whosoever 
shall  receive  one  of  such  children  in  my  name,  re- 
ceiveth  me  and  whosoever  shall  receive  me,  receiveth 
him  that  sent  me. ' ' 


[301] 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
SOME  OF  MY  MOTTOES 

The  preacher  set  in  order  many  proverbs.  Ecclesiastes 
12:  9. 

The  Truth  Will  Bear  Its  Own  Weight 

When  visiting  a  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  I  saw 
a  strong,  big,  crazy  farmer  brought  in,  by  a  posse  of 
his  muscular  neighbors,  who  seemed  to  feel  that  their 
grave  responsibility  would  be  fully  discharged  if  by 
any  device  they  inveigled  him  across  the  threshold 
of  the  asylum  and  hastily  shut  the  door. 

The  superintendent  said  to  the  base  deceivers, 
"And  how  did  you  get  this  man  to  accompany  you?" 

"We  told  him  we  were  going  to  buy  cattle,  and 
we  invited  him  to  go  with  us." 

"And  how  did  you  induce  him  to  come  to  this 
hospital !" 

"When  we  saw  it  in  the  distance  on  the  hill,  we 
said  to  him  that  we  thought  it  was  a  big  hotel,  and, 
as  the  night  was  coming  on,  we  asked  him  if  he  had 
not  as  lief  stop  there  as  anywhere;  and  he  said, 
'Yes.'" 

'  *  Now  before  you  go, ' '  said  the  superintendent  to 
the  false  brethren,  "you  must  tell  this  man  that  you 
lied  to  him;  that  this  is  not  a  hotel,  and  that  you 

[302] 


SOME  OF  MY  MOTTOES 

knew  it  was  not.  This  man  must  be  undeceived.  If 
it  is  left  to  us  to  disclose  to  him  the  facts,  he  might 
think  that  you  too  were  misguided,  and  that  the  place 
was  proving  of  a  different  character  from  what  people 
outside  have  generally  supposed,  that  you  were  his 
friends  and  we  were  not,  that  we  were  detaining  him 
unjustly.  This  starts  a  spirit  of  resistance  and  pre- 
judice and  animosity,  which  is  unfavorable  for  both 
treatment  and  recovery.  The  best  way  to  get  along 
with  the  insane  is  to  take  a  self-respecting  course 
with  them,  and  to  tell  them  the  truth.  If  this  man 
recovers,  it  will  be  by  coming  to  the  standards  of  fact 
where  a  hotel  is  a  hotel,  and  a  hospital  is  a  hospital. 
Right  wrongs  no  man." 

Thus  some  men  seem  to  feel  incorrectly  that  they 
are  about  the  only  persons  living  who  ought  to  know 
the  truth ;  that  it  is  their  care  to  see  that  it  is  doctored, 
warped,  and  by  them  adapted  to  other  people.  They 
use  falsehood  when  the  truth  would,  all  things  con- 
sidered, be  better. 

A  husband  will  sometimes  say,  "Now  to  my  wife 
I  always  take  this  attitude,  and  seek  to  give  this  im- 
pression/' as  if  things,  for  her,  needed  always  to  be 
made  over  according  to  some  erroneous  notions  of  his 
own.  He  gets  a  habit  of  twisting  the  truth  and  re- 
shaping it,  not  that  it  needs  it,  and  the  matters  in- 
volved are  not  improved  by  so  much  manipulation; 
but  he  thinks  that  the  truth  ought  in  some  way  to  be 
refashioned  for  different  people. 

Many  persons  think  they  are  not  shrewd  and  tact- 

[303] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

ful  unless  they  in  the  little  matters  of  daily  life,  ap- 
ply their  ingenuity,  to  distorting  and  perverting  the 
facts  of  the  case.  Nothing  is  further  from  the  spirit 
of  home  than  insincerity  and  acting  a  misleading  part. 
The  truth  will  bear  its  own  weight.  Out  with  a  hypo- 
crite, even  in  his  own  house! 

CULTIVATE   CLOSE   RELATIONS  WITH 
THOSE  YOU  OWE 

The  room  in  which  I  have  now  wrought  for  many 
years,  by  a  placard  on  the  door,  is  named  "The  Grind- 
er's Home."  On  the  right  on  a  shelf  stands  a  large- 
mouthed  bottle  in  which  I  have  put  all  the  cremated 
notes  that  I  have  given  for  any  debts  I  have  incurred. 
When  a  note  of  hand  was  paid  by  me,  I  would  burn 
it  and  put  the  ashes  in  this  bottle. 

The  pathos  of  my  life  is  in  this  receptacle,  and 
it  carries  a  lesson.  Wrapped  around  it  and  pasted  to 
it  is  a  sheet  of  paper  on  which  are  written  the  names 
of  the  persons  to  whom  I  have  owed  money.  I  find, 
on  calling  the  roll,  that  there  is  not  one  of  them,  that 
is  not  still,  a  friend,  and  there  is  not  one,  that  under 
the  same  circumstances,  I  could  not  go  to  today  with 
a  perfect  certainty  of  getting  the  same,  or  even  a 
larger,  favor.  I  attribute  it  in  part  to  an  adherence 
to  this  motto  of  my  life:  Cultivate  close  relations 
with  those  you  owe. 

This  is  a  very  practical  matter,  as  many  of  the 
new  fortunes  of  the  world  are  made  on  borrowed 
money.  When  you  owe  a  man,  do  not  avoid  him.  Do 
not  elude  him.  Do  not  cross  the  street  when  you  see 

[304] 


SOME  OF  MY  MOTTOES 

him  coming.  Do  not  either  studiously  or  even  uncons- 
ciously keep  out  of  his  way.  Why  treat  him  like  a 
leper  ? 

Do  not  dodge  Mm. 

Do  not  allow  yourself  to  dislike  him.  Try  to  see  him, 
and  not  wait  for  him  to  "see"  you.  When  a  friend 
lends  another  friend  money,  he  has  reason  often  to 
fear  that  he  will  lose  both  the  money  and  the  friend. 
Carefully  maintain  the  intimacy,  and  frankly  reveal 
just  what  you  have,  what  you  are  doing,  and  how  you 
are  getting  along. 

If  you  are  inclined  to  be  a  little  secretive,  and 
to  work  in  a  corner,  it  is  the  highest  impolicy  in  your 
relation  to  a  creditor.  Be  sure  to  pay  him  off  before 
you  grow  reticent  and  distant  and  exclusive.  While 
the  debt  stands,  keep  in  with  him.  Let  him  feel  that 
he  has  the  correct  view  of  the  inner  working  of  your 
mind  and  business.  He  will  often  be  wondrously  pa- 
tient, sometimes  unexpectedly  helpful  and  kind.  A 
man  under  such  conditions  deserves  to  be  treated 
decently,  and  has  a  right  to  know  more  than  you  have 
any  business  to  communicate  to  others.  Cultivate 
close  relations  with  those  you  owe. 
A  MAN'S  OPINIONS  MEASURE  HIM  AS  MUCH 
AS  THEY  DO  THE  THING  THAT  HE 
EXPRESSES  THEM  OF 

So  it  is  in  that  remarkable  debate  between  Ho- 
race Greeley  and  Robert  Dale  Owen  on  divorce, 
which  is  a  struggle  of  giants,  a  great  sight  to  witness, 
and  one  of  the  breeziest,  brightest,  profoundest  col- 

[305] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

lisions  to  be  found  in  our  literature.  The  impact  is 
furious.  It  is  a  great  display  of  power;  and  yet,  as 
if  in  mockery,  it  ends  just  where  it  began. 

Robert  Dale  Owen  exhibits  the  revolt  and  debase- 
ment of  feeling,  that  inhere,  in  being  wife  to  a  man, 
that  habitually  comes  home  drunk.  On  the  other 
hand,  Mr.  Greeley  sets  out  the  fact  that  the  state  has 
a  stake  in  every  marriage,  as  the  children  may  have  to 
be  supported  and  educated  at  public  expense;  that, 
if  a  young  woman  marries  a  man  who  drinks,  she 
must  have  a  drunkard  for  a  husband ;  that  the  unlike- 
liness of  divorce  acts  as  a  deterrent  to  ill-considered 
marriages,  on  the  principle,  named  by  the  judge  to 
the  culprit,  who  complained  of  his  punishment  for 
merely  stealing  a  horse,  when  he  was  told  that  sever- 
ity was  not  for  stealing  the  horse,  but  that  horses 
might  not  be  stolen. 

But  we  are  reviewing  the  case  that  we  may  ob- 
serve the  full  self -revelation  made  by  the  parties  en- 
gaged in  battle.  Their  opinions  mark  them.  Each 
one  has  the  defects  of  his  qualities.  One  is  plainly  a 
sentimentalist,  or  humanity  man,  who  cannot  bear  to 
see  a  woman  suffer.  The  other  is  a  comprehensive 
publicist,  a  statesman  who  has  thrown  his  feelings  be- 
hind his  back,  approached  the  subject  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  public  good,  and  designs  to  make  mar- 
riage a  serious  incident,  it  being  for  life. 

On  the  famous  electoral  commission,  almost  by 
accident,  it  became  necessary  to  name  Justice  Bradley 
in  place  of  Justice  David  Davis.  This  was  fatal,  in 

[306] 


SOME  OF  MY  MOTTOES 

advance  of  everything,  to  Mr.  Tilden;  for,  while  it 
was  hoped  that  the  eight  Republicans  and  seven  Demo- 
crats would  rise  above  the  trammels  of  parties,  and 
render  a  judicial  verdict,  on  the  pure  merits  of  the 
case,  yet  they  did  not;  for  on  each  of  the  three  dis- 
puted States,  and  on  the  elector  from  Oregon,  they 
voted  just  as  they  were,  as  partisans,  before  they 
heard  the  case,  eight  to  seven.  We  see  plainly  the 
meaning  of  our  Saviour's  precept,  Judge  not,  that  ye 
be  not  judged.  On  the  incidental  question  of  the 
right  to  use  a  play,  in  a  contention  at  law,  it  was  con- 
trived to  bring  before  the  court  the  question  whether 
Shakespeare's  plays  were  not  written  by  Bacon.  The 
judge  decided  that  they  were  written  by  Bacon.  He 
had  no  sooner  judged  than  he  was  judged.  The 
verdict  of  scholars  turned  against  the  judge.  A  man 
who  is  always  judging  invidiously  is  himself  judged 
mercilessly.  It  is  decided  that  such  a  judge  of  other 
people  is  censorious.  Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not 
judged. 

Two  women,  each  claiming  a  child,  were  brought 
before  Solomon  for  judgment.  Bring  me  a  sword, 
said  the  wisest  of  men.  We  will  make  an  equal  divi- 
sion. "0,  save  the  child!"  said  one. 

Give  her  the  living  child. 

In  no  wise  slay  it,"  said  one  of  the  women.  The 
one  thus  speaking  is  the  mother.  Her  motherhood 
shows  in  her  utterance.  Achilles  was  fond  of  war 
and  was  likely  to  get  into  it;  to  keep  him  out  of 
danger  his  mother  sent  him  to  an  obscure  place, 

[307] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

disguised  as  a  maiden.  In  the  expedition  against 
Troy  his  aid  was  indispensable.  He  must  be  identi- 
fied. Odysseus  appeared  as  a  peddler,  spread  his 
wares,  including  a  shield  and  spear,  before  the  king's 
daughters,  among  whom  was  Achilles  in  disguise. 
Then  he  caused  an  alarm  of  danger  to  be  sounded, 
upon  which,  while  the  girls  caught  up  what  personal 
adornments  they  could,  and  fled,  Achilles  seized  the 
arms  to  defend  himself,  man-fashion.  A  man's  ac- 
tions come  from  his  way  of  thinking,  and  his  opin- 
ions measure  him  more  than  the  thing  that  he  ex- 
presses them  of. 

In  Kossuth  County,  Iowa,  the  largest  county  in 
the  state,  two  rural  townships,  substantially  alike, 
were  voting  on  the  prohibitory  amendment.  One 
voted  fifty  for  the  amendment  to  twenty-two  against 
it.  The  other  vote  stood  seven  for  the  amendment 
and  one  hundred  and  seven  against  it.  It  was  the 
same  issue  exactly  in  both  townships.  When  on  the 
merits  of  a  proposition  the  question  is  identical,  a 
man's  opinions  touching  it  measure  him  as  much  as 
they  do  the  thing  he  expresses  them  of.  The  inference 
is  easy  that  there  were  two  different  kinds  of  people, 
with  different  antecedents  and  tastes  and  purposes 
and  that  the  vote  simply  recorded  a  distinction  among 
men. 

"That  only  which  we  have  within  can  we  see 
without."  A  man  cannot  help  revealing  himself,  his 
inheritance,  predilections,  temperament,  sympathies, 
and  limitations,  in  his  opinion,  which  discredits  no- 

[308] 


SOME  OF  MY  MOTTOES 

body  but  himself.    A  man  may  try  to  get  away  from 

himself  in  his  opinion,  but  he  cannot.     Even  if  he 

did,  it  would  not  be  his  opinion.     It  would  be  an 

affectation. 

THERE  IS  ALWAYS  A  WAY  TO  DO  A  THING 

In  your  visits  to  business  offices  it  must  be  sug- 
gestive to  notice,  how  many  of  them  have  printed 
mottoes  exposed  to  view,  in  varying  degrees  of  con- 
spicuousness.  Some  doubtless  are  put  up  by  em- 
ployees, and  some  by  the  proprietors;  but  they  are 
there,  showing  that  practically  every  man  or  woman 
has  some  basic  word  or  principle  to  which  he  likes 
to  adhere,  and  wishes  that  others  would  do  so.  Some 
of  these  are  helps  over  hard  places. 

When  Dr.  Meredith  was  conducting  his  far- 
famed  Bible  class,  in  Tremont  Temple,  people  ex- 
pressed to  him  surprise  at  the  wisdom  of  some  of  his 
offhand  answers.  He  said  that  those  replies  that  were 
apparently  impromptu  had  been,  on  the  contrary, 
most  elaborately  considered.  The  questions  that 
reached  him  usually  touched  some  principle,  like  that 
of  inspiration,  that  he  had  earlier  privately  attended 
to,  and  his  response  was  along  the  lines  of  his  con- 
clusions. He  had  studiously  and  carefully  made  up 
his  mind,  for  example,  whether  there  is  or  is  not  a 
miraculous,  supernatural  element  in  revelation.  A 
question  touching  this  rising,  he  at  once  falls  back 
upon  his  earlier  decision.  For  a  young  man,  when 
under  a  strong  temptation,  to  consider  not  his  im- 
mediate environment,  but  the  lines  of  conduct  he  had 

[309] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

earlier  fixed  for  his  behavior,  is  to  live  the  life  of 
principle. 

On  one  of  his  first  trips  as  brakeman,  a  verdant 
country  boy  heard  two  conductors  debating  which  of 
their  trains,  which  had  met,  should  back  up  to  some 
point  where  the  side  track  would  be  as  long  as  one  of 
the  trains,  so  that  they  could  pass.  But  in  the  face  of 
derision  the  rustic  boy  maintained  that  trains  could 
pass  each  other,  by  a  side  track  that  is  far  shorter 
than  either  of  them.  There  is  always  a  way  to  do  a 
thing,  and  he  pointed  it  out,  and  every  freight-con- 
ductor now  knows  that  two  trains  can  "saw  by"  on  a 
track  insufficient  to  hold  at  one  time  either  full  train. 

From  Emporia  there  rose  the  question,  "What's 
the  matter  with  Kansas  ? ' '  Benevolent  friends  of  the 
Eastern  States  had  been  sending  boxes  of  clothing, 
carloads  of  supplies,  and  all  kinds  of  grain  for  seed. 
So  much  had  been  done  for  Kansas  that  she  was 
"done  for,"  with  the  usual  result,  where  everything 
is  done  for  persons,  who  in  turn,  do  nothing  for  them- 
selves. 

They  are  "done  for." 

But  there  was  a  remedy.  There  is  always  a  way  to  do 
a  thing.  Their  present  prosperity  proves  the  truth  of 
the  proverb. 

I  was  once  on  a  committee  to  carry  a  city  for  no- 
license.  Conditions  peemed  to  render  the  prospect 
hopeless.  If  I  were  going  to  frame  a  motto  to  hang 
up  in  the  shops  and  committee-rooms,  it  would  be, 
"There  is  always  a  way  to  do  a  thing."  It  was  at 

[310] 


SOME  OF  MY  MOTTOES 

length  suggested  that  the  right  would  prevail  if  the 
local  Catholic  church,  which  was  very  strong,  would 
come  out  openly  in  the  contest,  and  if  the  holy  father 
would  attend  the  Sunday-night  rallies,  in  a  public 
hall,  and  participate  in  them.  I  remember  my  visit 
to  the  priest,  who  instantly  said  he  would  be  most 
happy. 

All  accounts  agree  that  the  churches  in  Musca- 
tine,  Io.,  were  trying  to  do  their  sledding  on  nearly 
bare  ground.  There  is  always  a  way  to  do  a  thing. 
They  had  the  courage  to  send  six  different  delega- 
tions to  Rev.  William  Sunday,  an  evangelist.  They 
secured  his  aid;  and  one  church,  not  speaking  of  the 
others,  increased  its  membership  from  six  hundred  to 
at  least  fifteen  hundred,  necessitating  a  new  audi- 
torium. 

Take  it  in  a  small  rural  community,  where  there 
are  too  many  impoverished  churches,  which  they 
cannot  properly  support,  where  two  at  least,  out  of 
them  all,  ought  to  unite.  They  have  their  antecedents 
and  their  property  and  their  appointments.  Suppose 
they  should  keep  this  flag  flying :  ' '  There  is  always  a 
way  to  do  a  thing." 

All  the  time  it  exists. 

It  puts  all  the  attention  on  finding  the  right  method ; 
there  is  a  door. 

It  takes  much  less  than  Mr.  Henry  Watterson's 
noble  oration  on  "The  Compromises  of  Life"  to 
show  that  almost  every  great  commanding  achieve- 
ment, like  our  United  States  government,  is  the  re- 

[311] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

suit  of  a  series  of  concessions.  When  you  speak  of  a 
"most  uncompromising"  man,  you  substantially  say 
that  he  is  opinionated,  intolerant,  odd,  ill  fitted  to 
work  or  get  along  with  others;  in  short,  uncivilized, 
for  the  very  word  refers  to  man  in  his  relations  with 
others.  The  apostle  takes  note  of  the  4 '  adversaries ; ' ' 
but  there  is,  too,  a  ''door;"  and,  if  we  gain  confidence 
by  this  motto,  it  is  inspiriting  to  seek,  with  others,  un- 
til we  find  it. 

HOW  MUCH  WE  MISS  BY  NOT 
ASKING  FOB  IT ! 

Rev.  Dr.  George  R.  W.  Scott,  who  died  while  en- 
gaged in  unselfish,  unpaid  labor,  a  most  acceptable 
and  gifted  preacher,  having  a  competency,  and  hence 
not  needing  any  income  from  his  ministry,  used  to 
express  often  his  surprise  and  regret  that,  having  said 
to  his  clerical  brethren,  who,  being  crowded  and 
pressed,  were  toiling  beyond  their  strength,  that  in 
the  event  of  their  desiring  a  respite  for  a  Sabbath 
or  two  he  would  cheerfully  and  gratuitously  supply 
their  pulpits,  though  breaking  under  their  burdens, 
and  needing  exactly  what  he  could  freely  give,  and 
would  supply  for  the  asking,  they  did  not  seem  to  ask. 

In  a  fine  passage  that  always  struck  my  fancy 
when  I  declaimed  it  in  school  the  poet  in  describing 
Lord  Byron,  exclaims  in  great  elevation  of  feeling, 
"Ashamed  to  ask,  and  yet  he  needed  help." 

I  heard  a  man  apologizing  to  a  bank  president 
for  seeking  a  loan.  "Why,"  said  the  president,  "we 
are  here  to  lend  money.  A  bank  cannot  exist  without 

[312] 


SOME  OF  MY  MOTTOES 

lending  money.  It  is  as  much  a  favor  to  us  to  bor- 
row money  of  us  as  it  is  to  you.  We  only  want  to  be 
sure  that  we  are  to  be  repaid." 

When  a  minister  is  suggested  for  a  church,  or  a 
worthy  person  is  named  to  make  an  address,  or  for 
office,  or  for  a  place  on  a  programme,  it  is  the  most 
provoking  impudence  for  some  person,  who  thinks 
he  knows  it  all,  to  step  in  uninstructed,  and  settle 
everything  in  advance  by  the  stout,  instant,  but  false, 
affirmation,  "O,  he  would  never  accept  it." 
"How  would  it  do  to  ask  himf" 
You  would  find  a  vast  gain  by  letting  him  make  his 
own  decisions.  I  have  known  persons  to  be  denied, 
some  of  the  most  exquisite  pleasures  of  their  lives, 
by  not  having  the  request  to  grant  a  favor,  ever  reach 
them.  It  was  stopped  on  its  way  by  a  person  who  did 
not  know  as  much  as  he  thought  he  did,  but  who 
judged  noble  souls  by  his  own  low  standards. 

Some  people,  whose  chief  interests  are  in  the 
religious  world,  can  readily  point  to  a  happy  mar- 
riage where,  if  the  young  man  had  inquired  of  people 
on  the  right  and  left  of  him,  if  he  had  better  give 
voice  to  his  affection  and  social  ambition,  they  would 
have  told  him,  No,  not  to  think  of  such  a  thing. 

I  once  desired  a  laborious,  painstaking  favor  of 
a  very  rich  parishioner,  and  said  to  a  committee,  with 
whom  I  was  conferring,  "I  believe  I  will  ask  for  it," 
and  they  said:  "How  dare  you?  It  will  never  be 
conceded."  But  I  presented  my  request.  I  found  a 

[313] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

friend  that  I  still  greatly  prize.  She  said  in  sub- 
stance: "Why,  yes,  certainly.  Don't  separate  me 
from  others  simply  because  my  husband  has  been  so 
prospered.  We  do  not  want  to  flock  by  ourselves,  and 
be  lonesome  and  deserted."  How  much  we  miss  by 
not  asking  for  it! 

Paradise  is  the  believing  in  it. 

A  man  was  seen  hurrying  along  over  the  frozen 
ground  in  the  direction  of  the  church.  An  acquaint- 
ance called  to  him,  "Where  are  you  going?" 

"To  the  parish  meeting." 

"WTiat  is  to  be  done?" 

"I  don't  know." 

"Then  what  are  you  going  for?" 

*  *  I  am  going  to  oppose  'em. ' ' 

He  belonged  to  the  opposition.  He  did  not  pro- 
pose anything,  nor  believe  in  anything,  nor  help  to 
advance  the  business,  but  made  it  all  brakes  and  no 
motor.  His  whole  object  in  life  was  to  combat  those 
that  did. 

Such  a  man  is  unusually  unhappy.  Take  two 
typical  men.  One  has  the  soul  to  say,  "I'm  for  it." 
The  attitude  natural  to  the  other  is,  "I'm  agin  it." 
Nothing  so  symbolizes  the  wine  of  life  as  to  have  a 
good,  worthy,  distinct  object,  of  which  one  can,  with 
all  self-abandonment  say,  "I'm  for  it."  Paradise  is 
the  believing  in  it. 

The  political  mugwump  makes  no  positive  con- 
tribution to  the  adoption  or  execution  of  any  govern- 

[314] 


SOME   OF  MY  MOTTOES 

mental  policy.     The  real  business  of  the  government 
has  to  be  carried  along  without  his  aid. 

True  criticism  must  be  sympathetic. 
There  can  be  no  appreciation  of  art,  without  the  art- 
istic spirit,  and  lacking  this,  a  man's  opinions  are  of 
no  more  value,  than  they  would  be  in  science,  without 
the  scientific  spirit.  One  man  does  not  know  any  more 
about  science,  than  another  man  does  about  religion. 
Yet  a  man  without  any  experience  in  religion  calls 
himself  liberal.  How  can  a  man  be  liberal  with  a 
thing  he  does  not  have?  It  is  like  generosity  with 
other  people's  money,  having  no  conception  of  its 
value,  never  having  earned  it.  A  man  must  have  felt 
an  affection  to  judge  of  its  power.  A  man  makes  for 
himself  the  world  he  lives  in.  A  man  makes  himself 
ridiculous,  by  expressing  opinions  on  religion  when  he 
is  without  the  religious  spirit.  It  is  against  the  first 
law  of  criticism.  He  is  out  of  his  class.  Such  a 
principle  would  not  be  applied  in  choosing  judges  at 
even  a  country  fair. 

There  are  many  victims  of  the  Doubting  Folly. 
Some  men  keep  the  question  raised  in  their  own 
minds  as  to  whether  they  have  accepted  the  right 
positition  or  profession.  This  impairs  energy  and 
concentration  and  pleasure.  When  a  person  faces  his 
work,  paradise  is  the  believing  in  it.  There  is  worldly 
wisdom,  even,  in  the  inspired  advice,  "  Forget  thine 
own  people,  and  thy  father's  house.'*  If  the  Gentile 
princess  has  given  her  hand  and  heart,  as  there  is  no 

[315] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

happiness  in  a  divided  mind,  let  her  go  over  heartily 
to  the  new  alliance.  Do  not  adopt  a  calling  in  which 
you  have  no  enthusiasm;  but,  having  said,  " That's  the 
course  for  me,"  then  stand  by  your  choice.  Paradise 
is  the  believing  in  it. 


[316] 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
THE  STORY  OF  A  BOOK  AND  AN  ISLAND 

Isa.  42:  4.     The  Isles  shall  wait  for  his  law. 
II  Chron.  24:  15.    I  have  found  a  book  of  the  law. 
Ps.  107:  20.    He  sent  his  word,  and  healed  them,  and 
delivered  them  from  their  destructions. 

The  man  standing  with  his  hands  tied  behind  him, 
on  the  deck  of  that  vessel,  is  Lieutenant  Bligh.  He 
and  eighteen  others  are  about  to  be  forced  over  tho 
side  of  the  ship  into  a  small  boat,  which  is  to  be 
veered  astern  and  cast  adrift  in  the  open  ocean.  He 
is  a  mean-spirited,  irritable,  passionate  man,  without 
tact,  with  no  inclination  toward  conciliation  but  with 
an  uncontrolled,  inhuman  temper.  The  seamen,  in- 
cluding subordinate  officers,  are  stung  and  smarting 
and  incensed  by  reason  of  undeserved  insults  from 
Bligh.  He  gave  Matthew  Quintal,  one  of  the  sea- 
men, two  dozen  lashes.  "I  thought"  said  Lieutenant 
Bligh,  "it  would  have  a  good  effect  to  punish  the 
boat  keeper  in  the  presence  of  the  seamen,  and  ac- 
cordingly I  ordered  him  a  dozen  lashes.  All  who  at- 
tended the  punishment  interceded  very  earnestly  to 
get  it  mitigated."  At  another  time  he  flogged  three 
men  and  put  them  in  irons  for  a  month  for  further 
punishment  and  flogged  them.  He  placed  a  midship- 

[317] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

man  in  irons  and  confined  him  thus  from  the  fifth  of 
January  to  the  twenty-third  of  March,  eleven  weeks. 

Not  liking  the  ship's  carpenter, 
Bligh  felt  that  he  was  under  the  necessity  of  confining 
him  to  his  cabin.  Bligh,  too,  fell  out  with  his  own  mess- 
mates, the  master  and  the  surgeon  of  his  ship,  and  sep- 
arated from  them,  each  taking  his  part  of  the  stock,  to 
live  in  his  own  cabin.  Such  scanty  portions  of  food 
were  allowed,  that  when  there  were  four  men  in  a  mess 
they  would  draw  lots  and  give  to  one  of  them  the 
whole.  Some  cheeses  were  taken  from  the  ship's  sup- 
ply and  he  accused  the  crew  of  the  theft,  whereas  it 
was  proved,  that  this  portion  of  the  sailor's  food,  had 
been  sent  by  the  lieutenant,  to  his  home  before  the  ship 
had  left  her  dock.  The  climax  came  when  he  accused 
the  officer  next  to  him,  Fletcher  Christian,  of  steal- 
ing some  cocoanuts  that  were  piled  up  on  the  deck 
between  the  guns.  The  small  boat  into  which  these 
nineteen  persons  were  hurried,  with  extremely  scant 
furnishings  and  supplies,  was  only  three  feet  in 
depth.  Some  of  their  few  things  had  to  be  thrown 
over  to  lighten  the  boat,  which  was  loaded  to  the 
water's  edge,  and  in  which,  in  great  distress,  was 
made  for  3618  miles,  the  most  extraordinary  voyage 
in  the  entire  history  of  the  sea.  The  men,  on  landing 
being  living  skeletons  clothed  in  rags,  scarcely  able 
to  walk,  were  viewed  with  horror,  surprise,  and  pity. 
On  the  ship  named  The  Bounty,  after  the 
mutiny,  remained  twenty-five  men,  who  set  her  bow 
for  Tahiti,  where  sixteen  of  the  men  were  put  ashore 

[318] 


THE  STORY  OF  A  BOOK  AND  AN  ISLAND 

at  their  own  request,  and  nine  set  off  in  her  to  find 
some  No  man's  secluded  island  in  an  uncharted  sea 
where  they  would  escape  the  vigilance  and  condign 
punishment  of  the  English  government,  which  was 
sure  to  immediately  attempt  to  run  them  down.  They 
took  with  them  six  Tahitian  men  and  twelve  Poly- 
lesian  women.  They  ran  the  ship  Bounty  upon  the 
rock  of  Pitcairn's  Island,  a  little  speck,  a  high  crag 
with  its  summit  in  the  clouds,  without  a  harbor,  that 
rises  sheer  and  inaccessible  out  of  the  unfrequented 
sea.  The  wife  of  Williams,  lost  her  life,  by  a  fall, 
from  a  precipice,  while  collecting  the  eggs  of  birds. 
The  white  men  developed  the  well-known  propensity 
to  treat  black  men  with  flagrant  oppression  and  com- 
pelled one  of  the  Tahitians  to  give  his  wife  to  Wil- 
liams. The  black  men  took  a  stand  against  this  out- 
rageous act  of  rank  injustice,  and  seeing  now,  plainly, 
that  they  had  no  rights  or  security  while  the  white 
men  lived,  devised  a  plot  for  their  destruction. 
Fletcher  Christian,  who  was  chiefly  and  primarily 
the  originator  of  the  mutiny,  within  eleven  months 
of  the  settlement  on  the  island  was  shot  while  at  work 
in  his  garden.  He  resisted  tyrany  and  became  a 
tyrant.  The  women,  seeing  the  inevitable  extinction 
of  the  white  men,  turned  upon  the  blacks  and  exter- 
minated them.  Jealousy  and  treachery  and  murder 
prevailed  until  John  Adams,  whose  real  name  was 
Alexander  Smith,  having  assumed  that  of  our  second 
president  to  conceal  his  identity,  was  the  sole  sur- 

[319] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

vivor  of  the  men  on  the  island,  and  all  died  of  viol- 
ence, except  one.  While  their  names  remain,  every 
trace  of  all  their  burial  places,  is  lost.  John  Adams 
even  had  a  hair  breadth  escape,  having  had  his  finger 
broken  in  a  close  struggle  for  his  life.  Having  been 
shot  in  the  neck  while  he  was  cultivating  his  ground, 
as  he  rose  up  was  felled  with  a  club.  For  ten  years 
these  fifteen  men  were  a  prey  to  their  own  vices. 
They  that  take  the  sword  perish  with  it.  The  drama 
in  which  each  played  a  part  commenced  by  treachery 
and  cruelty,  continued  in  violence  and  strife,  and 
ended  in  bloodshed  and  death.  These  hard  hearted, 
self-acknowledged  guilty  men,  who  were  in  hiding, 
have  taken  with  them  other  spirits,  heathen  ab- 
solutely, little  removed  from  cannibalism,  and  the 
last  state  of  these  men  is  worse  than  the  first.  As 
Adams  looked  across  that  wide  expanse  of  the  un- 
plumbed,  the  salt,  the  estranging  sea,  which  the  height 
of  his  position  commanded,  a  sail  appearing  would 
be  no  welcome  sight.  Like  Cain,  he  was  an  outcast 
amid  the  great  wilderness  of  water.  Those  dreadful 
scenes  at  which  he  assisted  lived  before  him,  and  a 
horrible  Nemesis  follows  him.  These  feuds  and  cold- 
blooded massacres  were  among  friends  and  intimate 
companions  who,  when  they  were  crossed,  stopped  at 
no  cruelty  and  at  none  of  God's  commands  right 
there  in  their  own  little  ocean  home.  His  situation 
is  desperate.  He  felt  a  grave  responsibility  for  a 
better  type  of  life  for  the  children  that  were  left,  and 
for  their  widowed  mothers. 

[320] 


THE  STORY  OF  A  BOOK  AND  AN  ISLAND 

"Where  is  the  way  where  light  dwellethf" 
As  if  by  direct  interference  of  Providence  he  came 
upon  a  solitary  copy  of  the  Bible,  which  had  been 
saved  from  The  Bounty.  I  have  identified  it,  I  think, 
as  the  probable  one  given  to  Peter  Heyward  by  his 
mother,  published  in  Edinboro,  having  bound  with  it, 
Tate  and  Brady's  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  car- 
ried from  London  half  way  across  the  globe,  return- 
ing later  to  New  York  for  exhibition  before  the  Sea- 
men's Friends  Society,  this  identical  book  became  to 
Adams,  in  his  sore  need,  the  power  of  God  unto  Sal- 
vation. In  desolation  and  loneliness  unspeakable,  his 
companions  dead,  his  thoughts  solemnized  by  visions 
in  the  night  so  that  he  could  not  sleep,  he  began  its 
perusal,  accompanying  his  diligent  study  by  prayer 
three  times  a  day.  His  mind  being  enlightened  and 
his  heart  mysteriously  warmed,  his  examination  re- 
vealed to  him  that  the  blood  of  Christ  cleanseth  from 
all  sin.  With  life  on  its  pages,  a  heart  in  its  words, 
the  Bible  needs  no  key.  It  speaks  for  itself.  The 
words  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life.  This  Bible  is  put 
to  a  test.  The  truth  is  simply  what  will  work.  We 
judge  by  a  specimen,  as  we  take  ore  from  a  mine,  or 
bits  of  cotton  from  a  bale,  or  of  wool  from  a  fleece. 
Is  the  Bible  capable  of  lifting  men  up  and  transform- 
ing them  when  used  by  unlikeliest  persons,  and  in 
the  most  forbidding  conditions  ?  If  it  is  efficient  with 
all  the  odds  against  it,  in  this  island,  could  it  not  be 
well  used  in  another?  Does  it  work?  There  are 
silver  books  and  a  few  golden  books,  but  here  is  one 

[321] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

book  that  is  above  price.  It  is  adapted  to  meet  a 
great  need.  The  change  wrought  by  it  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  produced,  and  never  has  been  effected  through 
the  instrumentality  of  any  other  book.  Becoming 
sole  instructor  and  guardian  and  the  gentle,  good 
shepherd,  the  children  received  the  things,  taught 
them  by  Adams  as  if  they  came  by  nature.  They 
showed  a  thirst  for  knowledge.  The  women  were 
teachable,  being  conscious  of  the  community's  perish- 
ing need.  A  modern  miracle  was  wrought. 

"He  sent  his  wordy  and  healed  them,  and  de- 
livered them  from  their  destructions.19 
For  eighteen  years  no  sails  came  within  the  horizon 
bounded  by  a  limitless  sea  and  sky.  Six  years  later 
two  vessels  are  standing  in  the  offing  two  miles  from 
shore.  The  visitors  observed  two  young  men  bringing 
their  canoes  on  their  shoulders  down  to  the  shore, 
launching  them,  dashing  through  the  heavy  surf,  pad- 
dling to  the  ships,  and  on  their  near  approach,  to  the 
astonishment  of  everybody,  calling  out  in  English, 
"Won't  you  heave  us  a  rope  now?"  One  of  these 
young  men  was  a  son  of  Fletcher  Christian,  the  chief 
in  the  mutiny,  and  his  name  is  Thursday  October 
Christian,  from  the  day  and  month  in  which  he  was 
born.  He  was  finely  formed,  and  well  mannered,  in 
stature  nearly  six  feet,  and  would  anywhere  have  pro- 
cured a  friendly  reception.  The  other  was  George 
Young,  son  of  the  midshipman,  tall,  robust,  athletic, 
healthy,  a  handsome  youth.  When  they  were  shown  into 
the  cabin  and  offered  something  to  eat  "I  blushed," 

[322] 


THE  STORY  OF  A  BOOK  AND  AN  ISLAND 

said  an  officer,  ' '  when  I  saw,  ere  they  began  to  eat  that 
on  their  knees  and  with  hands  uplifted  they  im- 
plored grace,  and  when  they  had  eaten,  resuming  their 
former  attitude,  offered  a  fervent  prayer  of  thanksgiv- 
ing. Our  omission  of  this  ceremony  did  not  escape  their 
notice,  for  Christian  asked  me  whether  it  was  not 
customary  with  us  also.  I  was  both  embarrassed  and 
wholly  at  a  loss  for  a  reply,  and  evaded  the  question 
by  drawing  his  attention  to  the  ship's  cow,  which  was 
then  looking  down  the  hatchway.  One  of  the  young 
islanders  rescued  a  child  by  diving  for  it  from  a  ves- 
sel that  was  lying  in  these  waters.  The  father  of  the 
child  came  to  him  and  offered  him  a  bag  of  dollars, 
which  he  pressed  the  youth  to  accept,  but  he  stoutly 
refused,  saying  he  had  only  done  his  duty.  Yet  he 
had  come  on  board  to  sell  some  vegetables  to  gain  a 
few  dimes  for  himself  and  exhibited  a  nice  distinction 
in  his  ideas  of  the  ways  of  getting  money,  not  by 
doing  one's  duty,  but  by  the  usual  avenue  of  a  fair 
exchange.  In  the  eagerness  of  the  young  men  to  get 
on  board  a  visiting  ship,  several  of  the  canoes  had 
been  suffered  to  go  adrift.  When  they  were  brought 
back  the  captain  ordered  that  one  of  the  islanders 
should  remain  in  each.  This  occasioned  the  question 
on  which  of  them  this  duty  should  devolve.  One  of 
them  remarked  that  he  supposed  they  were  all  equally 
anxious  to  see  the  ship,  and  the  fairest  way  would  be 
to  cast  lots.  This  was  at  once  acceded  to,  and  those 
upon  whom  it  fell  to  go  into  the  boats  departed  with- 
out a  murmur. 

[323] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

Visitors  to  the  island  report  that  the  young 
women  were  the  objects  of  particular  attraction,  their 
faces  beaming  with  smiles  indicating  an  unruffled 
good  humor,  and  exhibiting  modesty  and  bashfulness, 
and  a  demeanor  which  gave  them  that  grace  of  person 
which  we  call  charm.  A  sailor  landing  on  the  island, 
so  far  forgot  himself,  as  to  talk  to  one  of  the  girls 
as  if  he  was  a  heathen,  and  as  if  she  was  another. 
Her  replies  to  him  were  so  gentle  and  so  self-respect- 
ing, and  so  direct,  and  so  illuminating  to  his  darkened 
mind  and  depraved  nature,  that  he,  when  again  at 
sea,  saw  his  sinfulness  and  indecency,  and  became 
penitent,  and  on  reaching  port  united  with  the  mar- 
iners' church  in  Boston.  "I  feel  convinced/*  said 
Admiral  Morseby  "that  the  most  hard-hearted  villain 
and  the  greatest  reprobate  must  loathe  himself  and 
detest  his  own  sins  in  contemplating  the  high  moral 
standard  to  which  these  simple  islanders  have  at- 
tained/' Before  commencing  the  day's  work  each  fam- 
ily has  religious  worship  consisting  of  Scripture  read- 
ing and  prayer.  If  a  guest  comes  to  the  family  table 
after  a  meal  is  begun,  grace  having  been  said,  they 
all  wait  for  him  to  ask  a  blessing,  to  which  they  all 
respond,  Amen.  They  unite  in  returning  thanks  at 
the  end  of  the  repast.  "On  one  occasion,"  said  Cap- 
tain Beechy  "I  had  engaged  Adams  in  conversation, 
and  he  incautiously  took  the  first  mouthful  without 
having  said  grace ;  but  before  he  had  swallowed  it  he 
recollected  himself  and  feeling  as  if  he  had  com- 

[324] 


THE  STORY  OF  A  BOOK  AND  AN  ISLAND 

mitted  a  crime  immediately  put  away  what  he  had  in 
his  mouth  and  commenced  his  prayer.  On  the  Sab- 
bath they  attend  two  services  beside  a  session  of  the 
Sunday  School.  A  British  Admiral  said  he  had  never 
heard  such  singing  except  at  Cathedrals.  They  be- 
came the  most  religious  people  on  the  globe  and  their 
piety  is  extremely  becoming.  Human  history  pre- 
sents no  other  contrast  so  marked,  and  the  fact  is  un- 
questioned that  it  came  from  the  spiritual  illumina- 
tion of  one  man  and  came  to  include  the  whole  people, 
with  no  exception  and  all  proceeded  from  a  single, 
unaided,  heaven-sent  copy  of  the  Bible.  This  book 
fits  the  facts  of  life.  "The  entrance  of  thy  word 
giveth  light."  "He  shall  call  upon  me  and  I  will 
answer  him.  I  will  deliver  him  and  honor  him.  With 
long  life  will  I  satisfy  him  and  show  him  my  salva- 
tion." An  organ  was  presented  to  the  islanders  by 
the  Queen  of  England  "in  appreciation  of  their 
domestic  virtues." 

THESE  WERE  A  BIBLE  PRODUCT 
Indelicacy  had  never  lighted  her  unallowed 
flame  on  the  pure  altar  of  their  innocent  hearts.  They 
are  strictly  honest  in  their  dealings  with  each  other 
and  with  those  who  visit  them  in  ships.  They  have 
no  locks  upon  their  houses,  and  those  who  trade  with 
them  do  not  deem  it  necessary  to  witness  the  measure- 
ments of  articles  purchased  from  them.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  describe  the  atmosphere  and  charm  that  the 
society  of  these  Christian  people  throws  around  the 

[325] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

most  modest  and  interesting  and  well  organized  com- 
munity that  has,  perhaps,  ever  been  seen  upon  the 
earth.  That  one  Bible  actually  produced  in  this  most 
engaging  little  spot  in  the  world  a  golden  age,  an 
Acadia,  a  Utopia,  a  millenium  not  paralleled  else- 
where in  the  world  and  supposed  to  exist  only  in  the 
imagination  of  poets  and  in  the  aspirations  of  philo- 
sophers. They  live  together  in  perfect  harmony  and 
contentment  where  before  they  were  a  prey  to  their 
evil  natures  and  are  patterns  in  all  the  affectionate 
relations  of  life  and  have  no  vices.  McKoy,  one  of 
the  wicked  original  mutineers  had  been  a  distiller 
and  had  a  guilty  knowledge  of  the  processes  of  manu- 
facturing an  intoxicant  from  the  root  of  a  plant  called 
the  tee,  and  was  himself  in  a  state  of  constant  drunk- 
enness and  in  a  fit  of  delirium  tremens  threw  himself 
from  a  cliff  and  was  killed  outright.  This  degrading 
vice,  which  lay  at  the  base  of  the  mutiny  itself,  as 
Fletcher  Christian,  the  instigator,  on  board  The 
Bounty,  served  a  grog  as  he  proposed  the  crime,  they 
stamped  out  utterly.  They  bruised  the  head  of  the 
serpent  and  there  are  no  more  distilleries,  no  more 
liquors  nor  drunkenness,  nor  quarrels,  nor  swearing, 
and  no  bad  language,  no  slander,  no  harsh  words. 

A  VERITABLE  SHEPHERD 
On  the  first  day  of  the  week  a  ship  appeared  and 
desired  to  get  some  water.     They  told  the  captain 
that  they  do  not  barter  on  Sunday.    If  it  was  a  mat- 
ter of  necessity  they  would  bring  him  a  little,  but 

[326] 


THE  STORY  OF  A  BOOK  AND  AN  ISLAND 

their  consciences  were  against  labor  on  the  Sabbath 
and  most  of  the  people  were  at  meeting.  The  men  of 
the  ship,  on  reaching  the  church,  found  that  the 
sermon  had  just  commenced  and  they  were  soon  them- 
selves engaged  in  the  religious  observances,  solemni- 
ties, and  prayers,  among  the  islanders  so  worthy  of 
all  respect,  so  heaven  born,  so  singular.  A  perfect 
paralysis  falls  upon  toil  and  business  upon  the  Lord's 
day  to  a  degree  in  the  human  race  never  before  seen 
in  any  people  springing  from  so  guilty  a  stock.  On 
the  sixth  of  November,  1883,  died  the  last  survivor  of 
the  generation  taught  as  children  by  John  Adams.  In 
a  last  illness  she  revived  the  days  when  she,  as  a 
child,  was  instructed  by  him,  and  did  not  cease  re- 
peating the  prayer  that  John  Adams  taught  his  youth- 
ful flock  to  use  before  retiring  to  rest,  I  will  lay  me 
down  in  peace  and  take  my  rest,  for  Thou,  Lord, 
makest  me  to  dwell  in  safety.  Like  Napoleon,  like 
Stonewall  Jackson,  John  Adams,  too,  pastor,  teacher, 
exemplar,  law  giver,  governor  of  the  island,  having 
survived  the  last  of  his  companions  twenty-nine  years 
seemed  to  be  living  over  the  vivid  momentous  inci- 
dents of  his  eventful  career.  "Land  in  sight!"  he 
exclaimed  as  the  hour  of  his  translation  arrived. 
' '  Are  you  happy  ? ' '  asked  one  who  stood  by  his  death- 
bed. "Rounding  the  cape  into  the  harbor,"  was  the 
jubilant  reply.  Nearer  drew  the  saintly  man  to  the 
celestial  prospect;  calmer  became  the  haven.  "Let 
go  the  anchor,"  he  exclaimed,  and  the  Christian 
pioneer  was  no  more. 

[327] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

Land  ahead!  its  fruits  are  waving 
O'er  the  hills  of  fadeless  green; 

And  the  living  waters  laving 

Shores  where  heavenly  forms  are  seen. 

Onward,  bark!  the  cape  I'm  rounding 

See,  the  blessed  wave  their  hands; 
Hear  the  harps  of  God  resounding 
From  the  bright  immortal  bands. 

Now  we're  safe  from  all  temptation, 
All  the  storms  of  life  are  past ; 

Praise  the  Rock  of  our  salvation, 
We  are  safe  at  home  at  last. 

Rocks  and  storms  I'll  fear  no  more, 
When  on  that  eternal  shore; 

Drop  the  anchor !  furl  the  sail ! 
I  am  safe  within  the  veil. 


[328] 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 
MODERN  METHODS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

You  young  men,  because  ye  are  strong.    I  John  2 :  14. 

Have  you  ever  noticed  that  business  firms,  as 
they  advance  in  years,  are  always  associating  with 
them  young,  energetic  partners  in  trade?  Who  could 
not  catalogue  an  extended  list  of  commercial  houses 
that  have  taken,  by  this  means,  a  new  lease  of  life? 
Indeed  it  is  doubted  by  some  shrewd  observers,  if  a 
company  of  old  men  with  old  methods  could  hold 
their  own  in  places  of  sharp  competition;  in  fact,  I 
have  heard  it  affirmed  by  one  who  was  in  a  situation 
to  form  a  good  opinion,  that  no  man  could  manu- 
facture shoes  after  he  was  fifty  years  of  age.  He 
becomes  impatient  of  detail. 

It  is  not  maintained  that  shoe-manufacturers 
must  surrender  their  livings  at  the  dead  line  of  fifty. 
The  point  is,  rather,  that  they  must  introduce  into 
the  business  with  them,  young  salesmen,  and  asso- 
ciates, and  employees.  It  is  not  necessary  that  their 
names  should  appear  on  the  letter-heads,  but  the 
young  blood  must  be  felt. 

So  it  is  in  the  church.  We  must  introduce  young 
men  into  the  firm  that  is  doing  business  for  God. 
There  is  no  objection  to  a  senior  partner,  who,  as 

[329] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

pastor,  heads  the  work  and  does  the  preaching  if  it 
is  a  young  people's  church  and  their  animation  and 
thrift  are  felt  in  the  conduct  of  affairs.  Churches 
do  not  turn  to  young  ministers  because  they  preach 
better,  for,  certainly,  they  do  not.  Parishes  feel  the 
need,  however,  of  some  methods  of  church-building 
which  shall  be  supplementary  to  pulpit  work. 

The  volume  of  Christian  personality  must  be  in- 
creased, what  I  will  call  the  element  of  humanness 
must  be  present.  Mr.  Moody  calls  it  personal  effort, 
and  says  that  when  sanctified,  it  surpasses  in  effect- 
iveness, even  his  work  in  great  congregations.  It 
seems  to  be  a  law  in  the  spiritual  world,  that  all 
the  religious  work  shall  never  be  relegated  to  a  pro- 
fessional set.  In  a  church  service,  the  preacher  had 
pressed  the  claims  of  Christ  upon  some  young  hearts 
with  a  good  deal  of  power.  He  asked  all  who  were 
ready  to  confess  Christ  to  rise.  A  boy  was  observed 
to  be  struggling  with  convictions  of  duty.  He  had 
been  so  wrought  upon  that  it  even  became  apparent 
to  those  who  were  seated  near  him,  but  he  could  not 
quite  bring  himself  to  submit  to  the  test  which  the 
pastor  had  named.  The  moments  were  passing  and 
he  was  resisting,  and  the  opportunity  was  closing, 
when  a  young  woman  who  sat  behind  him  reached 
forward  and  touched  him,  whispering,  "If  God  is 
talking  with  you,  would  you  not  better  do  what  He  is 
saying  to  you  ? "  He  rose  up. 

The  touch  did  it. 
The  little  man  straightened  himself  to  make  a  life-long 

[330] 


MODERN   METHODS   OF   CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

stand  for  God.  Your  mental  sight  reproduces  the  scene. 
The  picture  honors  the  pastor's  appeal.  Nothing 
would  have  been  accomplished  without  the  truth. 
Yet  what  is  needed  is  the  pastor  plus,  the  pastor  plus 
the  touch.  In  an  organized  way  we  must  furnish  the 
additional  factor,  the  touch,  that  peculiar  element  of 
humanness  which  is  so  effective  in  all  practical  work. 
Warm  hearts  must  supplement  the  ministerial  limits. 
This  is  no  disparagement  of  convincing  pulpit  work. 
It  honors  it  rather.  It  completes  it.  It  sums  up  its 
work.  The  pastor  plus  the  touch  is  precisely  what  we 
aim  to  secure  in  The  Modern  Methods  of  Christian 
Nurture. 

When  that  highly  cultivated  young  gentleman,  a 
graduate,  trained  as  a  lawyer,  became  the  earliest 
itinerant  advocate  of  The  Modern  Methods  of  Christ- 
ian Nurture,  this  was  the  occasion.  He  was  growing 
up  in  a  city  church  and  being  likely,  clean,  and  able, 
was  the  object  of  much  eloquent  admiration.  In  a 
company  of  women  which  amounted  to  a  maternal 
association  he  was  named  as  a  subject  of  particular 
prayer.  Some  of  the  men  of  the  church  knew  of  this, 
and  would  often  speak  to  him  and  tell  him  that  on 
his  mother's  account,  and  on  his  own  they  were  pray- 
ing for  him  and  hoped  that  he  would  soon  feel  it  to 
be  his  duty  to  unite  with  the  church.  He  thus  lived 
and  developed  in  a  fine  warm  atmosphere,  and  sur- 
rounded and  helped  by  a  coterie  of  friends  he  united 
with  the  church.  Presently  he  found  that  he  lacked 
the  sympathy  and  warm  interest  and  incitements  that 

[331] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

had  been  his  making.  The  men  who  had  so  persist- 
ently angled  for  him  had  now  gone  after  other  fish. 

They  regarded  him  as  landed. 

So  far  as  he  was  concerned,  their  work  was  done. 
When  the  Pilgrims  were  learning  their  new  art  of 
planting  corn,  the  Indians  taught  them  to  place  two 
fish  in  every  hill.  Passing  a  field  thus  fertilized,  or 
any  place  where  fish  are  caught  and  not  used,  ' '  Oh  the 
offense  is  rank,  it  smells  to  heaven. ' '  Fishers  of  Men 
owe  it  to  their  catch  to  put  it  to  noble  use.  We  get  a 
lesson  from  the  parable  of  the  leaven.  It  must  be  kept 
warm,  otherwise  it  does  not  work.  Isolation  here  is 
death.  "I  had  grown  cold  through  isolation;  in  fellow- 
ship I  found  the  thrill  of  new,  warm  life/'  said  Dr. 
Dawson  in  his  greatest  utterance,  The  Evangelistic 
Note.  A  man  naturally  a  recluse  finds  godly  com- 
munion with  others.  God  is  with  his  people.  All  pres- 
ent desire  the  well-being  of  all.  The  reality  of  religion 
is  each  one's  happiness  and  is  the  solicitude  of  all. 
Each  molecule  must  take  its  part  and  perform  its  own 
duty.  Atoms  of  dough  do  not  say  to  three  or  five 
others,  Now  you  represent  us  in  this  work.  Leaven 
is  a  committee  of  the  whole.  Each  little  unit  takes 
hold  just  where  it  is  to  do  the  work,  in  its  new  pres- 
ent vital  relations.  Just  where  it  is  it  must  tug  and 
lift.  We  say  of  leaven,  It  works.  It  must  have  ap- 
propriate material.  It  must  have  contact  with  the 
meal. 

Here  is  a  phenomenon. 
Who  can  declare  it?     How  does  it  happen  that  not 

[332] 


MODERN  METHODS   OF   CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

one  of  us  can  name  a  city  or  town  or  village  or  hamlet 
in  which  every  soul  is  truly  converted  to  God?  If 
there  are  few  persons  thus  unconverted,  it  seems  de- 
creed that  these  few  shall  be  difficult  cases.  Provi- 
dence seems  to  design  that  every 

Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor 
should  be  furnished  with  material  upon  which  to 
work.  God's  providence  without,  cooperates  thus 
with  God's  spirit  within.  One  supplies  the  material, 
and  the  other  the  leavening  spirit.  To  serve  an  end 
so  desirable  it  becomes  necessary  that  the  Calling 
Committee,  Social  Committee,  through  the  Lookout 
Committee  should  keep  propounding  for  membership 
boys  and  girls  in  this  associated  life.  The  chance  is 
given  to  everybody  to  take  hold.  The  handle  of  things 
is  turned  toward  each  member.  Have  you  social 
sparkle?  Here  is  your  field.  Have  you  musical 
talent?  Come  with  us.  Can  you  serve  upon  a  com- 
mittee? What  a  variety  of  talent  is  available.  It 
is  plain  that  we  must  keep  widely  enlarging  the  asso- 
ciate membership  and  not  discourage  it,  as  the  man- 
ner of  some  is.  The  desirability  of  this  form  of  ac- 
cession leads  me  to  deprecate  the  tendency  of  those 
who  are  already  members  of  a  society  to  make  a  social 
set.  There  is  a  fellowship,  and  it  is  delightful  to  wit- 
ness, but  the  danger  is  that  it  may  become  a  "Ring." 
Now  if  a  society  were  to  be  organized  where  soci- 
eties now  exist,  it  would  be  made  up  of  others  than 
those  who  compose  it.  The  danger  is  that  our  organ- 

[333] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

ization  shall  become  like  the  sewing  circle  in  the 
church. 

Certain   ladies   constitute   it. 

If  other  ladies  had  composed  it  from  the  beginning, 
they  would  have  been  it.  There  is  no  reason  at  all  why 
other  ladies  should  not  be  the  sewing  society  as  well  as 
those  that  compose  it.  So  with  our  societies;  social 
congenialities  increase  as  time  goes  on.  Nothing  will 
limit  our  growth  like  a  clique.  Many  a  society,  once  de- 
signed for  all,  has  struck  on  that  rock.  Some  churches, 
even,  get  wrecked  on  the  same  shoal.  A  society  or 
a  church  with  a  clique  in  it  has  taken  the  oars  up 
into  the  boat  and  has  begun  to  drift.  In  propound- 
ing names  for  membership  it  is  a  mistake  to  specify 
the  sort  of  membership  into  which  the  candidate  pro- 
poses to  come.  Have  them  voted  in  simply  as  mem- 
bers, leaving  the  kind  of  membership  to  be  determined 
when,  in  an  atmosphere  of  prayer,  under  the  pressure 
of  the  spirit,  they  sign  the  roll.  That  is  the  point 
at  which  very  many  favorable  decisions  are  reached. 
No  delinquent  active  member  ought  ever  to  be  rele- 
gated to  the  associate  list.  That  degrades  it.  It 
makes  a  motley  company,  it  comes  to  consist  of  the 
ring-streaked  and  speckled.  The  roll  of  associate 
membership  becomes  thus  a  black  list.  There  is 
nothing  necessarily  opprobrious  about  associate  mem- 
bership. It  is  a  part  of  the  working  machinery,  and 
a  worthy,  necessary  portion.  No  member  of  the 
church  nor  Christian  ought  ever  to  be  enrolled  in  the 
associate  list.  It  breaks  down  the  very  distinction 

[334] 


MODERN  METHODS   OF   CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

that  it  is  the  life  of  the  society  to  keep  defined.  Have 
an  honorary  list,  if  one  should  be  needed.  We  must 
reserve  associate  membership  for  those  of  good  repute. 

It  makes  a  difference, 

if  a  man  stands  at  a  threshold,  whether  he  is  facing 
in  or  facing  out,  and  he  must  be  helped  in  the  direc- 
tion he  is  facing. 

There  is,  undoubtedly,  an  element  here  which  is 
unique,  and  which  is  certain  to  have  a  lasting  place 
in  all  successful  church  administration,  and  that  is 
a  provision  that  every  young  disciple  shall,  like  Tim- 
othy, ''exercise  himself  under  godliness."  When  the 
accomplished  young  graduate,  to  whom  reference  has 
been  made,  saw  a  church  at  work  among  its  young  peo- 
ple by  the  Modern  Methods  of  Christian  Nurture  with 
all  the  ardor  of  his  new-found  relations  to  Christ,  he 
turned  aside  from  a  chosen  profession  and  took  up 
a  banner  with  the  strange  device,  just  quoted  from 
Scripture  to  plant  its  colors  in  every  state  westward 
to  the  Pacific  sea.  Mr.  A.  T.  Stewart  was  fond  of 
calling  his  store  a  school  for  training  young  men  in 
business.  They  learned  to  sell  by  selling.  They  were 
taught  how  to  do  things  by  doing  them.  One  must 
get  the  pronunciation  of  a  language  by  speaking  it. 
In  arithmetic  there  is  a  simple  statement  of  the  princi- 
ple, and  then  follow  the  exercises.  Christianity  is 
more  than  a  science; 

It  is  an  art. 

This  latter  is  acquired  by  practice  chiefly.  Young  men 
and  young  women  can  be  trained  for  the  church  work 

[335] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

of  committees,  by  putting  them  upon  committees. 
Young  persons  can  best  learn  church  policy  by  becom- 
ing a  part  of  the  church  machinery  and  studying  its 
working  from  within  the  work.  It  is  wise  even  to  let 
the  Juniors  do  most  of  their  own  work.  The  worst  ad- 
vised thing  of  all  is  to  introduce  the  lecture  system. 
What  industrial  training  is  in  the  world  of  education, 
that  The  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  En- 
deavor is  in  the  religious  realm.  It  teaches  young 
people  how  to  engage  in  religious  activities  by  en- 
gaging in  them.  Religion  ceases  to  be  a  science  only 
taught  out  of  a  book,  or  in  lectures  by  a  teacher.  No 
matter  how  much  a  person  may  learn  in  a  primary 
school,  grammar  school,  college,  or  professional 
school,  there  are  still  some  things  that  he  must  learn 
to  do  by  doing  them.  We  used  to  call  it  The  Am- 
herst  System  applied  in  the  religious  realm.  Many 
national  institutions  now  educate,  or  govern  the  stud- 
ents by  means  of  one  other.  Bringing  them  into 
contact  with  each  other,  the  college  has  not  declined 
in  the  tone  and  energy  of  its  influence,  nor  has  it 
weakened  in  scholarly  ambition,  nor  in  the  attach- 
ments and  allegience  of  its  graduates.  The  memory 
of  man  returns  to  a  day  when  Dr.  Samuel  Taylor 
ruled  Phillips  Academy  like  a  despot." 
"I  am  the  government/' 

was  about  the  idea.  The  institution  fell  into  virtual 
anarchy  in  making  the  transition  from  the  one  man 
sway  to  the  government  by  a  faculty.  It  suggests 
France  and  Russia.  The  students  have  come  to  share 

[336] 


MODERN  METHODS  OF  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

in  the  administration  of  order.  A  similar  change  has 
come  over  the  spirit  of  our  churches.  Time  was  when 
the  minister  was  monarch.  If  a  party  or  ball  seemed 
offensive  he  appeared  upon  the  scene  and  dismissed 
the  assembly.  In  the  early  days  he  was  the  physician 
also.  The  first  medical  work  published  in  America 
was  by  the  pastor  in  Weymouth.  The  minister  did 
much  of  the  legal  business  of  the  people.  Lawyers 
were  rare  until  the  approach  of  the  Revolution.  He 
now  is  the  truest  pastor  who  associates  the  people  with 
him  in  church  work.  Like  others,  he  is  desired  to  be  a 
member  of  the  church.  He  is  not  paid  for  preaching, 
but  is  paid  that  he  may  preach.  Those  who  are  breth- 
ren with  him  in  the  church  seem  to  say,  "We  will  take 
care  of  you  and  of  yours,  that  you  may  give  yourself 
continually  to  prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  Word." 
This  principle  of  self-government  so  prevails  in  The 
Modern  Methods  of  Christian  Nurture  that  there  is 
a  vigor  of  requirement  that  astonishes  outsiders,  and 
which  would  never  be  practicable  except  that  they 
are  self-imposed.  It  is  the  religious  part  of  the  great 
world  trend  toward  democracy. 

It  is  religious  co-education 

as  we  have  it  in  the  family  and  in  the  church.  It 
means  the  co-operation  of  the  sexes  in  all  religious 
activities.  It  means  unconsciousness  of  sex  in  the 
services  of  Christ.  Thus  shall  it  be  in  the  last 
days,  when  God's  Spirit  is  poured  out  upon  all  flesh, 
that  the  young  men  and  women,  the  sons  and  the 

[337] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

daughters,  shall  prophesy,  and  "whosoever  shall  call 
upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved."  The 
custom  of  deferring  to  the  young  element  as  impa- 
tient of  control  is  injurious.  Some  administrations 
are  afraid  of  the  younger  element  in  the  church.  Some 
good  persons  sit  apart  and  talk  about  the  young 
people  as  though  they  were  a  distinct  order  of  beings. 
They  are  a  constituent  part  of  the  church,  and  as 
such  are  to  learn  the  discipline  of  subjection.  Even 
our  Lord,  when  but  twelve  years  of  age,  referred  to 
some  things  which  he  must  do;  and  one  of  them  was 
his  Father's  business.  Nothing  surprises  a  Christian 
worker  so  much  and  so  often  as  the  unexpected  Chris- 
tian earnestness  of  young  people.  What  astonishment 
visits  the  hearts  of  many  persons  in  the  audience 
when  the  minister,  with  an  accent  of  conviction  reads 
the  words  of  our  text,  "I  have  written  unto 

You  young  men  because  ye  are  strong, 
and  the  word  of  God  abideth  in  you,  and  ye  have 
overcome  the  wicked  one."  The  very  specifications 
cover  details  on  which  people  incline  to  an  opposite 
opinion,  but  inspiration  was  never  truer  than  here. 
Of  all  the  characteristics  of  this  organization  no  other 
one  is  so  conspicuously  admirable  as  that  which,  for 
want  of  a  term,  will  be  called,  the  determining  ele- 
ment, which  joins  the  personal  issue  and  causes  the 
individual,  halting  hitherto,  to  pronounce  himself  and 
"subscribe  with  his  hand  unto  the  Lord  and  surname 
himself  by  the  name  of  Israel."  Our  public  school 

[338] 


MODERN  METHODS   OF   CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 

system  provides  set  days  for  determining  to  what  de- 
gree pupils  have  at  length  matured.  So  church  work 
needs,  and  needs  nothing  else  so  much  as  to  cause 
subjects  of  prayer  and  instruction  not  only  to  believe 
in  the  heart,  but  to  confess  with  the  mouth,  saying 
either  Yes  or  No  to  what  God  requires. 

At  the  foot  of  the  Himalaya  Mountains  there  are 
some  places,  so  I  remember  to  have  read,  where  they 
obtain  fruit  all  the  year  over.  In  their  mild  winter 
it  ripens  on  the  plain,  and  when  the  fierce  summer  has 
scorched  to  ashes  the  lowland  vegetation  they  bring 
down  the  berries  plump  and  cool  from  the  upper  eleva- 
tions beside  the  snow.  In  the  matter  of  fruitage  our 
Society  is  admirably  situated  with  reference  to  a  like 
result.  There  are  ideas  and  plans  of  religious  work, 
entertained  by  many  good  people,  that  seem  to  pro- 
vide only  for  an  occasional  harvest. 

Evangelists  become  reapers. 

Their  efforts  must,  in  the  necessities  of  the  case,  be 
spasmodic.  Work  that  is  related  to  years  of  church 
life  is  done  up  in  the  aggregate.  It  is  bunched.  En- 
deavor is  put  forth  as  if  once  for  all.  This  has  cer- 
tain advantages.  It  gives  accent  to  the  word  now. 
It  draws  the  public  gaze.  It  has  a  large  measure  of 
eclat. 

But  with  the  methods  of  the  Spirit  revealed  as 
they  are,  behold  I  show  you  a  more  excellent  way. 
Every  meeting  of  this  Society  becomes  an  accepted 
time;  every  Sabbath  is  a  day  of  salvation.  Unlike 

[339] 


THE  WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

the  vine  with  its  annual  harvest,  or  the  aloe  plant 
which  puts  its  entire  life  into  its  centenary  flower, 
with  its  consecration  meeting,  this  Society  in  a  church 
"is  there  the  tree  of  life  which  yielded  her  fruit 
every  month." 


[340] 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
FIVE    WORDS 

In  the  Church  I  had  rather  speak  five  words.  I  Cor. 
14:  19. 

When  Socrates  in  his  prison  at  Athens,  con- 
demned to  drink  the  draught  of  fatal  Hemlock  by 
decree  of  the  Court,  was  about  to  begin  his  great  ora- 
tion on  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul,  he  said  to  those 
who  were  about  him:  Let  us  take  hold  of  one  an- 
other's hands  as  we  approach  this  deep  and  rapid 
river,  and  let  us  pray  unto  the  gods  for  help.  In 
entering  upon  a  subject  so  near  to  the  heart,  let  us 
in  sympathy  take  hold  of  one  another's  hand  and 
pray  unto  God  for  help. 

When  the  beloved  Professor  Churchill  from 
Andover,  used  to  give  elocutionary  entertainment  in 
our  churches,  he  used  to  say,  If  there  are  bracket 
lamps,  beside  the  lamp  on  the  desk,  let  them  be 
lighted.  The  illumination  of  the  chandelier  will  of 
course  be  welcome.  If  you  choose  for  place,  a  public 
hall,  and  there  are  footlights,  let  them  be  ablaze. 
When  I  read  I  like  to  stand  in  an  atmosphere  of  light. 
His  expression  gains  distinctness  and  his  form  has 
clearer  outlines  thus  like  an  angel  standing  in  the 
sun.  There  are  subjects,  that  we  have  not  only  known, 
but  have  so  entered  into  our  lives,  that  when  we  re- 

[341] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

present  them,  we  instinctively  reach  out  our  hands 
for  all  the  reinforcement,  that  we  can  gain  from  our 
best  moods  and  from  an  atmosphere  of  prayer. 

When  General  Thomas'  division  of  General 
Grant's  army  was  faced  up  to  Missionary  Ridge,  it 
was  Gordon  Granger's  command,  all  young  men, 
mostly  new  recruits,  who,  seized  by  a  sudden  inspira- 
tion, never  halting,  never  wavering,  never  doubting, 
reckless  of  death,  scaled  the  sharp  acclivity,  steep  as 
a  house-top,  and  like  a  whirlwind  swept  General 
Bragg,  from  a  position  which  was  deemed  secure.  On 
his  gray  horse,  followed  by  Hardee,  he  was  soon  in 
flight,  discomforted,  routed  with  his  forces  irretriev- 
ably broken.  The  young  men  were  sent  to  take  some 
rifle  pits  and  they  captured  a  ridge.  Neither  of  the 
generals  initiated  the  movement.  Some  English 
strategists  who  were  present  believed  it  out  of  the 
question  for  an  army,  step  by  step  by  step, 

Like  mountain  goats, 

to  ascend  a  precipice  that  rose  sheer  four  hundred 
feet.  These  martinets  pronounced  the  thing,  that 
the  young  men  did,  impossible,  but  these  youths 
had  not  heard  that  it  was  impossible  and  they  went 
right  on  and  did  it.  It  is  the  spirit  that  gets  things 
done  no  matter  how  great  the  difficulty  or  odds.  Fired 
with  a  holy  recklessness  they  did  not  know  any  bet- 
ter than  to  do  the  thing  that  was  suffering  to  be  done, 
and  so  went  over  the  top. 

Intuition  is  diviner  than  experience. 
Many  persons  carry  their  experience  like  a  burden, 

[342] 


FIVE  WORDS 

and  are  limited  by  it,  in  their  course,  and  need  to 
drop  their  pack,  as  Bunyan  ?s  Pilgrim  did,  in  order  to 
reach  forth,  unto  those  things  that  are  before. 

Immortal  praise  is  given  to  a  woman  in  Scripture 
for  having  done  what  she  could,  but  here  are  young 
men  doing  what  they  could  not.  It  is  the  glory  of 
young  life  to  be  doing  the  thing  that  has  been  deemed 
impossible.  They  take  their  bent,  not  from  the  ob- 
stacles, that  are  held  to  be  insurmountable,  but  from 
a  certain  spontaneous  upspringing,  irrepressible, 
buoyancy  in  youth  that  is,  at  first  hand,  an  original  en- 
dowment from  their  Maker  who  not  only  sets  a  young 
man  up,  but  puts  a  new,  fresh,  unused,  unafraid  im- 
pulse inside  of  him  to  set  him  going.  This  God  in 
him,  entheus,  enthusiasm,  is  a  more  potent  factor 
than  years  or  munitions  of  war  without  it.  Seeing 
this  God  implanted,  wonderfully  effective  force  exists, 
what  hindereth  us  from  touching  it  up,  from  mak- 
ing it  an  ally,  from  providing  a  wide  field  for  its  dis- 
play, in  the  religious  realm.  It  reinvigorates  the 
church;  it  can  point  to  some  modern  miracles.  The 
man  who  says  a  thing  cannot  be  done  is  followed  by 
the  young  man  who  does  it.  That  political  party 
will  eventually  rule,  that  makes  itself  the  most  hospit- 
able to  the  young.  When  nominees  are  being  con- 
sidered, the  practical  question  first  asked  by  the  wise 
ones  is,  Will  the  ticket  thus  presented  be  acceptable 
to  the  "boys?"  While  this  designation  is  carried 
along  far  into  life,  yet  we  know  its  original  signifi- 
cance, and  what  force  it  was,  that  the  careful  men 

[343] 


THE  WORST  BOYS   IN   TOWN 

felt  they  had  to  reckon  with,  or  be  thrown  down. 
Those  heroic  figures,  some  of  them  mere  boys,  who 
have  passed  through  the  fire  in  this  day  of  trial  in  the 
nation's  history,  can  never  again  be  quite  small. 

How  the  young  are  coming  to  the  front. 
They  may  have  defects,  but  they  have  spirit.  We 
must  not  fail,  in  our  appreciation,  of  this  great  burst 
of  idealism,  during  the  impressionable,  open-hearted 
years  of  young  men 's  lives,  in  its  effect  upon  the  whole 
course  of  our  national  life.  This  upspringing  of  native 
spontaneity,  which  renews  itself  in  a  fresh  generation, 
is  heaven-born.  It  is  not  the  duty  of  us,  who  are 
older  to  stamp  out  these  new  incitements  and  re- 
solves, lest  haply  we  be  found  destroying  the  best 
thing  that  has  come  to  us.  That  was  a  good  prayer 
of  the  brother,  in  meeting,  that  we  might  be  raised 
above  the  need  of  any  local  or  special  pressure  to 
duty,  that  out  steadfast  pressure  might  be  ever  from 
within. 

It  is  obvious,  first,  that  religious  activity  should 
enlist  the  young.  It  will  be  most  effective  if,  secondly, 
it  is  a  people's  movement.  When  it  was  reported  to 
General  Stonewall  Jackson,  who  had  been  mortally 
wounded,  that  the  soldiers,  gathered  at  headquaretrs, 
were  all  praying  for  him,  he  said,  They  are  very  kind. 
As  the  end  of  his  brilliant  career  drew  near,  like  the 
greatest  military  genius  of  any  age  he,  too,  not  only 
passed  into  delirium,  but  also  like  Napoleon,  imagined 
that  he  was  commanding  in  a  heady  fight,  and  the 

[344] 


FIVE  WORDS 

words  rang  out  on  the  startled  air,  Order  A.  P.  Hill 
to  prepare  for  action. 

Pass  the  infantry  to  the  front  rapidly. 
For  the  Lord's  army  that  is  a  timely  order.  Ad- 
vance the  infantry,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  laic  element  in  the  church  to  the  front  rap- 
idly. Formerly  the  church  engaged  in  Homeric  war- 
fare. This  was  a  struggle  of  chieftains.  In  Bible 
phrase,  it  is  pictured  to  us  in  the  encounter  between 
Goliath  of  Gath,  whose  height  was  six  cubits  and  a 
span,  and  David,  to  whom  King  Saul  said,  Go  and  the 
Lord  be  with  thee.  As  between  these  heroes,  the  battle 
went,  so  the  victory  promptly  followed.  And  when 
the  Phillistines  saw  that  the  giant  had  fallen  upon 
his  face  to  the  earth  they  fled.  The  lion-hearted  Rich- 
ard, challenging  Saladin  to  single  combat  would  be 
now  absurd. 

The  most  considerable  man  that  ever  set  foot  in 
Lynn,  to  become  a  resident,  Dr.  Parsons  Cooke,  no- 
ticed a  man,  rising  in  the  First  Church  of  Christ  to 
utter  a  testimony,  in  a  revival  meeting,  and  he 
thought  him  disturbed,  and  asked  him  to  be  seated. 
In  times  of  religious  awakening,  Dr.  Cooke  took  all 
the  responsibility,  preached  every  evening,  as  long  as 
strength  was  given  to  him  to  perform  his  solitary 


When  he  stopped  the  revival  stayed. 
Now  if  we  see  a  work  of  grace  limited  in  its  active 
agency  to  one  person  we  are  apprehensive  that  it  lacks 
scope  and  depth  and  power.     Hundreds  of  old  time 

[345] 


THE   WORST  BOYS   IN  TOWN 

New  England  churches  indicate  the  same  early  limita- 
tion in  working  force.  How  many  sanctuaries,  that  we 
have  seen,  have  been  raised  up  and  a  vestry  put  be- 
neath them,  to  enable  them  to  make  a  wider  employ- 
ment, of  their  working  forces.  Where  elevation  of 
the  building  was  impracticable,  we  see  a  chapel  com- 
paratively new  in  an  adjacent  building.  But  the 
significance  is  the  same,  a  new  structure  to  provide 
for  wider  activity  on  the  part  of  the  people.  It  was 
never  designed,  that  the  witness  bearing  power  in  a 
church  should  be  limited  to  one  individual,  no  matter 
how  talented.  You  may  have  a  minister  like  Chrysos- 
tom,  the  Homer  of  orators,  who  was  compared  to  the 
sun,  his  name  signifying  The  Golden  Mouth.  The 
minister  may  have  the  spirit  of  a  St.  John,  yet  for 
a  great  work  in  a  church  a  minister,  plus  the  people 
is  better  than  any  imaginable  minister  when  working 
alone. 

Beside  enlisting,  first,  the  young,  and  being,  sec- 
ondly, a  people's  movement,  a  widespread  religious 
work,  to  be  effective,  needs,  thirdly,  to  be  organized 
into  a  society.  When  Mr.  Moody  was  conducting 
probably  his  greatest  evangelistic  campaign,  the  great 
concourse  of  people,  having  gathered  in  a  hippo- 
drome, he  lacked  a  suitable  place,  for  an  after  meet- 
ing. He  asked  those  who  felt  interested  in  the  things, 
he  had  stated,  to  come  with  him,  up  into  a  gallery, 
and  expressed  the  wish  that  many  Christians  would 
accompany  them.  Now,  said  he,  Will  those  who  feel 
that  they  are  Christians  please  rise  ?  If  you  have  madie 

[346] 


FIVE  WORDS 

your  beginning  tonight,   or  at  some  earlier,  recent 
meeting,  if  you  feel  that  you  are  Christians,  please  rise. 

Do  not  move,  please, 

just  rise  and  stand  where  you  are.  Now  we  under- 
stand that  all  have  risen,  that  feel  that  they  are 
Christians.  Do  not  move,  please ;  just  rise  and  stand 
right  where  you  are.  Now,  said  he  to  those  standing, 
you  see  who  are  seated.  Now  sit  right  down  just 
where  you  were,  and  those  who  are  Christians  go 
to  work  upon  those  who  are  not.  That  is  the  method 
of  work  exactly,  in  an  organization  having  in  its 
name  five  words,  Young,  Peoples,  Society,  Chris- 
tian, Endeavor.  It  sharply  differentiates  between 
active  and  associate  members,  and  then  shuts  them  up 
in  a  society  together  in  order  that  those  who  are 
Christians  may  go  to  work  upon  those  who  are  not. 
At  a  meeting  the  Society's  books  are  opened  for  ad- 
ditions to  membership.  Down  the  page  is  a  line,  on 
one  side  of  which  are  active  members;  on  the  other 
side,  associate.  A  young  lady  advances  to  sign  the 
constitution.  Will  you  join  as  an  active,  or  as  an  as- 
sociate member?  "I  want  to  join  the  Society, 
please. "  "Yes,  we  understand,  but  will  you  join  as 
an  active,  or  as  an  associate  member?"  "What  is  an 
active  member?"  "An  active  member  is  one  who 
is  willing  to  be  considered  as  endeavoring  to  lead  a 
Christian  life."  "Then  what  is  an  associate  mem- 
ber?" "An  associate  member  is  one  who  is  not  will- 
ing to  be  considered  as  endeavoring  to  lead  a  Christian 
life."  "Well,"  as  I  said,  "I  thought  I  would  just  join 

[347] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN   TOWN 

the  Society.  I  had  not  thought  to  commit  myself  on 
the  matter  of  the  Christian  life."  We  do  not  have 
any  neutrals.  The  Saviour  does  not.  Everybody  here 
alights  from  the  fence  and  takes  sides.  No  one  soul 
has  been  exempt  from  this  among  the  millions  who 
have  joined  us.  We  have  no  what-is-its,  no  hybrids. 
"Will  you  join  as  an  active  or  as  an  associate  mem- 
ber?" "I  want  to  pray  about  it."  On  reaching  a 
well-known  home,  her  mother  found,  from  her  talk, 
that  it  was  with  her  own  beloved  daughter  what  the 
Scripture  calls  Thy  Day.  "My  child,"  she  exclaimed, 
* l  The  spirit  of  God  is  striving  with  you. 

'Tis  mercy's  hour. 

Perhaps  if  we  both  pray  and  if  we  recognize  the 
presence  of  God,  you  may  now  become  one  of  those 
who  are  willing  to  be  considered  as  endeavoring  to 
lead  a  Christian  life."  Is  it  not  plain  that  the  So- 
ciety, by  the  very  fortunate  nature,  by  the  inherent 
form  of  its  organization,  is  bringing  this  young  soul 
to  an  issue.  Like  most  other  persons,  she  entered  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  her  knees.  She  became  con- 
spicuously useful  as  a  Christian  worker.  She  was 
married  to  a  gentleman,  widely  known,  who  gives  all 
his  time  to  religious  service  in  a  Massachusetts  city. 
In  its  very  organization  as  a  society,  young  people 
are  brought  to  a  corner  where  two  ways  meet,  where 
a  decision  must  be  made.  When  the  issue  is  thus 
joined,  as  one  young  member  said,  the  very  place  of 
meeting  becomes  as  solemn  as  the  judgment.  It  is 
believed,  that  any  minister  who  reads  these  lines,  will 

[348] 


FIVE  WORDS 

consent  to  the  proposition,  that  there  is  no  other  serv- 
ice that  any  other  organization  can  do,  that  will  sur- 
pass this,  to  cause  persons  to  thus  become  pronounced 
in  their  religious  life.  No  other  organization  has  ever 
been  projected,  that  by  necessity,  in  the  very  terms 
of  its  existence,  causes  persons  to  come  to  Christian 
decision.  This,  the  Society,  by  its  very  constitution, 
is  suited  to  do.  Its  greatest  emphasis  is  thus  seen  to 
be  on  the  word  Christian. 

Young  people  influence  young  people, 
and  here  they  do  it,  at  a  point  that  touches  both 
time  and  eternity.  It  is  just  here  that  a  soci- 
ety may  be  seen  at  its  best.  It  aims  at  conversion 
and  is,  at  the  same  time,  organized  for  recruiting, 
so  that  it  gathers  with  one  hand  what,  with  the  other 
hand  it  directs  to  the  cross.  This  is  the  crowning 
glory  of  the  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor,  and  it 
ought  everywhere  to  be  made  known,  that  it  combines 
in  the  truest  proportion  of  any  organization,  in  the 
church,  religious  life  and  religious  activity.  It  is  on 
this  idea,  that  the  society  gets  its  patent.  The  class 
meeting  and  the  prayer  meeting  bring  out  experience 
and  testimony.  The  Sabbath  School  furnishes  instruc- 
tion. This  Society  combines  in  the  best  proportions, 
Christian  life  and  Christian  endeavor.  The  efficacy 
of  a  medicine  depends  not  only  upon  its  ingredients, 
but  also  upon  their  proportions.  It  has  been  found 
in  practice,  that  if  the  training  school,  which  this  so- 
ciety presents,  were  suspended,  another  precisely  like 

[349] 


THE   WORST  BOYS  IN  TOWN 

it,  in  aim  and  form  and  proportions,  would  have  to 
be  adopted.  In  these  matters, 

Like  Abau  Ben  Adhem, 

this  society  leads  all  the  rest.  The  principles  on  which 
it  was  founded  have  been  tested,  and  the  reserves  of 
energy  are  continued,  their  strength  unwasted,  as  if 
God  had  brought  them  down  through  the  years  in  His 
hand.  When  the  deep  friendship  sprang  up  between 
David  and  Jonathan,  they  made  a  covenant  with  each 
other.  There  is  always  a  movement,  toward  a  pledge, 
in  any  case  where  a  strong  love  is  felt.  It  measures 
the  depth  of  the  affection  and  stands  for  it.  In  the 
ardor  of  young  discipleship,  a  pledge  is  taken  to 
attend  the  meeting  and  help  the  meeting.  Devotion 
of  spirit  is  the  key  and  explanation  of  everything  in 
the  great  conventions.  When  in  one  of  them  all  the 
preparations  were  complete,  and  this  brilliant  com- 
mittee of  seventeen,  an  aggregation  of  princes,  had 
put  on  their  last  touches,  and  had  done  all  that  human 
wisdom  could  contrive,  they  came  together  in  a  secret 
place  and  prostrated  themselves  before  God  for  an 
hour  and  a  quarter,  from  four  o'clock  until  a  quarter 
past  five,  and  remained  in  importunate  prayer  until 
they  had  the  assurance  that  they  were  heard,  and  that 
there  would  be  a  good  convention.  Such  results,  as 
are  witnessed  in  these  great  convocations,  do  not  sim- 
ply happen.  "God  hath  spoken  once;  twice  have  I 
heard  this,  that  power  belongeth  unto  God."  This 
committee,  talented  as  men  go,  never  had  a  meeting 
that  did  not  open  and  close  with  prayer.  More  than 

[3501 


FIVE  WORDS 

once  the  remark  was  made  as  the  meetings  advanced, 
"This  is  hallowed  ground,  because  the  Lord  has  vis- 
ited His  people  and  the  place  of  His  feet  is  glorious. ' ' 
The  consecration  was  distinctly  Christian,  and  when 
so  much  feeling  exists  it  tends  to  exemplify  our  fifth 
word,  which  is,  endeavor.  Behold  of  a  sudden  the 
ancient  and  well-nigh  forgotten  fable  of  Briareus  has 
a  divine  realization.  This  Christian  organization  has 
now  a  hundred  hands.  When  Heine  the  poet,  in  seri- 
ous illness,  was  led  by  friends  to  the  feet  of  the 
famous  statue  of  Venus,  which  is  bereft  of  arms, 
he  looked  up  in  her  face  and  murmured,  "Oh  my 
lady  of  Milo,  help  me ! "  and  she  seemed  to  answer, 
"I  would  do  so,  Heine,  but  you  see  I  have  no  arms." 
The  daughter  of  Zion,  in  many  communities,  still  is 
fair  and  statuesque.  She  pities  and  desires  to  help 
but  she  has  no  arms.  The  young  people  of  the  church 
now  consecrate  to  her  beneficent  service  their  thou- 
sands of  willing  hands. 


[351] 


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